'Children in Darfur have reached a breaking point”

GENEVA/PORT SUDAN, 28 April 2028 - "Twenty years ago, Darfur shocked the world. An entire generation of children became victims or survivors of terrible atrocities. Images of burned villages, death and mass displacement sparked global outrage and action. As always, children were at the sharpest end of the crisis.

"Today, as the war in Sudan moves into its fourth year, history is repeating itself in the darkest possible way for children in Darfur. Once again, millions of children are living through extreme violence, hunger, and displacement. But this time, the crisis is deeper and global attention has not come close to matching the scale of children's suffering.

"Today, some 33 million people in Sudan need humanitarian assistance - more than half of them children. An estimated 15 million people have been uprooted, including approximately 5 million children.

"Across the five Darfur states, more than 5 million children are facing extreme deprivation.

"As we did two decades ago, UNICEF is today launching a new Child Alert to raise the alarm about the catastrophic situation of children in Darfur. Children are at a breaking point.

"Across the region, childhood is again defined by fear and loss. Homes have been burned. Schools and health facilities have been damaged or destroyed. Families have been forced to flee - often repeatedly, often with nothing. Children are bearing the heaviest weight of this war.

"In Darfur, children are being killed and maimed, uprooted from their homes, and pushed into extreme hunger, disease and trauma. Nowhere has the impact been more severe than in Al Fasher. Since April 2024, more than 1,500 grave violations against children have been verified in Al Fasher, including the killing and maiming of over 1,300 children, many by explosive weapons and drones, as well as sexual violence, abductions and recruitment and use by armed groups.

"Even though the siege of Al Fasher has ended, its impact continues. The consequences continue to shape daily life for children, both those who fled and those who were forced to stay.

"Yet violence is not contained to one city or region. Across Sudan, it is intensifying. In just the first 90 days of this year, at least 245 children were reportedly killed or injured. These are just the cases we have been able to document; the true toll is likely a lot higher. Behind every number is a child whose life, and future, has been irrevocably altered.

"Hunger has become another frontline threat. Famine conditions were confirmed in Al Fasher in November 2025, and malnutrition rates among children have reached catastrophic levels in parts of Darfur, with Global Acute Malnutrition rates exceeding 50 per cent in some locations. Across Darfur, conflict has shattered livelihoods and food systems.

"Health services have been attacked, looted or forced to close. Routine immunisation has been disrupted. Disease outbreaks remain a constant risk, particularly for children already weakened by hunger.

"Education has also been devastated. Of the nearly 4 million school-aged children in Darfur, over 3 million are now out of school. Schools have been destroyed, closed, or repurposed as shelters.

"This crisis does not stop at Sudan's borders. Children are fleeing into neighbouring countries, arriving exhausted, traumatized and malnourished. Host communities have shown generosity, but services are overwhelmed and severely underfunded.

"Despite extraordinary challenges, UNICEF and partners are staying and delivering: treating children for severe acute malnutrition, providing safe water, supporting mobile health and vaccination services, and delivering psychosocial support and learning in child-friendly spaces.

"But humanitarian action is being pushed to its limits.

"What is needed now is not abstract. We need predictable, sustained humanitarian access and presence across Darfur - not temporary openings, but the ability to remain and deliver consistently and safely. Movement must be enabled, not obstructed.

"Civilians must be protected, with children explicitly at the centre of these efforts. Schools, clinics, water systems and humanitarian convoys must be spared from attacks.

"And we need urgent, flexible funding that matches the scale and urgency of this crisis. Today, UNICEF's 2026 humanitarian appeal for Sudan is only 16 per cent funded, putting lifesaving services for millions of children at risk.

"Children in Darfur do not need sympathy. They need the world to act, now. An entire generation is at stake."

Link to the report: https://www.unicef.org/child-alert/children-under-threat-darfur