The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that new assessments from North Darfur reveal \u201ccatastrophic\u201d levels of acute malnutrition, with more than half of all children in some areas now severely affected. The warning comes as clashes intensify between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), nearly three years into a war that has devastated the country and its youngest citizens.<\/p>\n
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Recent data from The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the UN\u2011backed global food security monitoring system, indicates that famine thresholds have already been breached in Um Baru, Kernoi and At Tine, areas not previously considered at high risk. UNICEF Spokesperson Ricardo Pires said the crisis is accelerating at an alarming pace.<\/p>\n
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\u201cExtreme hunger and malnutrition come for children first, the youngest, the smallest, the most vulnerable,\u201d he said. \u201cIn Sudan, it\u2019s spreading. These are children between six months and five years old, and they are running out of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
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UNICEF stressed that the conditions driving starvation in these three localities, conflict, displacement, the collapse of public services and blocked humanitarian access, are present across large parts of Sudan. According to the agency, this suggests famine could take hold far beyond the areas already identified.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIf famine is looming there, it can take hold anywhere,\u201d Pires said.
\nAlongside hunger, disease is accelerating mortality among children. In At Tine, nearly half of all children had been sick in the preceding two weeks. Outbreaks of fever, diarrhoea and respiratory infections, combined with unsafe water, low vaccination coverage and the collapse of the health system, are turning otherwise treatable illnesses into fatal conditions for severely malnourished children.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThese children are not just hungry. They are getting sick, and there is no functioning health system left to save them,\u201d Pires added. He urged the international community to \u201cstop looking away\u201d, warning that more than half of the children in Um Baru are \u201cwasting away while we watch\u201d. He emphasised that these figures represent real children with names and futures now being stolen by preventable suffering.<\/p>\n
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The humanitarian crisis has been fuelled by nearly three years of war between former allies SAF and RSF. What began as a power struggle in April 2023 has since triggered mass displacement on a scale unprecedented in Sudan\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
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An estimated 13.6 million people have been forced from their homes, including 9.1 million displaced within Sudan, now one of the world\u2019s largest internal displacement crises.<\/p>\n
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Humanitarian access remains severely restricted, with aid convoys frequently blocked or attacked. Many health facilities have been destroyed or abandoned, while shortages of medicine, clean water and nutrition supplies continue to worsen conditions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
UN agencies warn that unless access is urgently granted and violence subsides, Sudan risks descending further into a nationwide catastrophe, with children bearing the brunt.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–UN\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21401,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-23585","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Relentless violence, famine and disease are driving a rising death toll among children in Sudan, United Nations (UN) agencies warned on Tuesday, as escalating fighting and attacks on healthcare facilities cripple efforts to deliver life\u2011saving assistance.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Relentless violence, famine and disease are driving a rising death toll among children in Sudan, United Nations (UN) agencies warned on Tuesday, as escalating fighting and attacks on healthcare facilities cripple efforts to deliver life\u2011saving assistance.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26508,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23585\/revisions\/26508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}