The Sudan crisis - A children’s crisis
The conflict in Sudan has upended the lives of children. Millions have fled their homes and are displaced in the country and across the borders.
The humanitarian needs in Sudan are staggering as the conflict enters its third year. The number of children in need of humanitarian assistance has increased by more than 20 per cent compared to last year.
Children are bearing the biggest brunt. Millions have fled their homes and are displaced in the country and across the borders - now the world’s largest child displacement crisis.
Children have endured years of uncertainty, trauma and violence. The current situation in Sudan is a deepening children’s crisis, severely putting at risk the future of the country and heavily affecting the wider region. The situation is especially dire for children and families trapped in areas affected by direct conflict, insecurity, and lack of protection.
Even before the crisis, the situation of children was dire – Sudan had one of the highest rates of malnutrition among children in the world.
Today, recurrent disease outbreaks, including measles and malaria, continue to affect large numbers of children, and the routine immunization rates have rapidly fallen; Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) related diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera remain a high risk due to lack of safe water and adequate sanitation.
Education is under attack. Even before the conflict, seven million children, one in every three, were unable to access quality education or were dropping out. While schools have partially opened, millions of school-aged children remain out of school. Without an education, their future remains at stake.
Sudan is today the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world which is projected to deteriorate further if the fighting does not immediately stop, pushing the already vulnerable into a further state of desperation, and threatening millions of children's lives daily.
Each day the fighting continues, the misery deepens for children in Sudan especially the most vulnerable.
“No bullets. One rose for each child." These were the powerful words of 10-year-old Majd during a psychosocial session delivered by UNICEF and partners.
How UNICEF is supporting
UNICEF Sudan is staying and delivering a three-pronged strategy:
- Maintaining lifesaving services in conflict hotspots.
- Providing urgent assistance to the newly displaced and host communities, and
- Preserving essential WASH, Health, Nutrition and Child Protection services across the 18 states of Sudan.
Since the start of the current conflict, UNICEF Sudan is:
- Reaching children and women with health supplies and vaccines.
- Screening children for malnutrition and initiating treatment including ready-to-use-therapeutic food (RUTF) for those that are malnourished.
- Providing communities with safe drinking water, and sanitation and hygiene services.
- Reaching pregnant and lactating women and their families with cash assistance, information and vital services to sustain their resilience, health and wellbeing.
- Providing children and caregivers with psychosocial-counselling, learning and protection support, including through safe-spaces established across Sudan.
What UNICEF is calling for
- The fighting to stop.
- Protecting, respecting, and fulfilling the rights of children caught in the middle of this devastating crisis.
- Unimpeded access and free movement and protection of humanitarian goods and workers.
- Flexible funding to sustain and scale-up our support to the children, their families, and communities in Sudan.
UNICEF's emergency response
UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children appeal helps support the agency’s work as it provides conflict- and disaster-affected children with access to water, sanitation, nutrition, education, health and protection services.
The cost of inaction of the Sudan crisis is unacceptably high
Without an immediate and extensive crisis response, the consequences of displacement, lack of basic social services, and protection will have devastating - and long-term - effects on children, and therewith the future of Sudan, the region, and globally.
“As in any conflict—the direct and indirect impacts for children and families are devastating, and without concerted action, including the commitment of the parties to the conflict to stop the fighting and uphold international law, severe violations of children’s rights will only worsen. Without guaranteed, safe and unimpeded access for humanitarian workers, and life-saving supplies, along with urgently needed additional funding, the futures of millions of children will remain in the balance,”
Al Fasher crisis
The recent escalation of violence and fighting in Al Fasher, North Darfur, has uprooted thousands of families — with children and women bearing the brunt of the suffering.
After months of siege and days on treacherous roads, families arrive in Tawila weak, exhausted, thirsty and hungry. Most come with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Children are visibly scared, traumatized, and malnourished.
The needs are staggering. Thousands who fled Al Fasher are sleeping under trees and along the roadsides, exposed to the elements. With the town now overflowing, there are not enough tents or makeshift shelters for the thousands seeking safety.