Thousands of Sudanese children endure severe malnutrition in 'epicentre of suffering', says Unicef

UN agency calls for urgent aid access in El Fasher as civil war rages

Women and babies at Zamzam displacement camp, close to El Fasher in North Darfur in January 2025. Reuters

Thousands of children in the besieged Sudanese city of El Fasher are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, UN children’s agency Unicef said on Wednesday, as it called for life-saving aid to be allowed in.

As the civil war rages and without adequate food and medical care, about 6,000 children face an exponentially higher risk of death, the agency said.

El Fasher, which is held by the Sudanese armed forces, has been besieged by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since May last year. Tens of thousands of residents have fled shelling.

“We are witnessing a devastating tragedy – children in El Fasher are starving while Unicef’s lifesaving nutrition services are being blocked,” said Catherine Russell, the agency's executive director.

“Blocking humanitarian access is a grave breach of children's rights and the lives of children are hanging in the balance. Unicef continues to call for immediate and full access, including through expanded pauses in the fighting, to allow us to reach all children in need.”

About 260,000 civilians are still trapped in El Fasher, half of them children. The city, from where about 600,000 people have fled, has been cut off from supply routes and aid deliveries for more than 16 months, the UN agency said.

“Malnutrition, disease and violence are claiming young lives every day,” Unicef said in a statement. El Fasher has become an “epicentre of child suffering”.

A group of peace brokers including the UAE last week called on both sides in Sudan's conflict to ease the worsening humanitarian crisis by meeting seven demands.

These include keeping key routes open for aid convoys, such as roads to the Darfur region, ensuring safe passage for civilians to seeking assistance, and guarantees that aid workers will not face retaliation if they lend assistance in areas held by their rivals.

The Alps coalition, which also includes Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the US and Switzerland, also urged the combatants to ensure the protection of critical civilian infrastructure.

The civil war in Sudan has been raging since April 2023. In recent months, the country has found itself divided between two rival governments after the RSF established an administration in areas under its control.

“At least 63 people – including children – died within a week as a result of malnutrition,” Unicef said. More than 10,000 children have been treated for acute malnutrition in El Fasher since January – almost twice as many as in the previous year, it said.

Supply lines to the city have been severed by the fighting. As a result, health centres and mobile nutrition teams have been forced to suspend operations because resources are depleted. This has left an estimated 6,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition without hope of treatment.

Without therapeutic, food and medical support, those children face an increased risk of death.

Since the start of the siege in April 2024, more than 1,100 grave crimes have been verified in El Fasher, including murders, abductions and sexual assaults. “Due to limited access and verification challenges, the number of affected children is almost certainly significantly higher,” Unicef said.