Image: A vaccination centre in Kassala state in July. Photograph: Mohammed Abdulmajid/Unicef
Children in Sudan are facing two deadly dangers at the same time, hunger and disease. In Darfur, particularly in the city of El-Fasher, families are trapped without food while infections spread quickly among the young. Aid groups warn that without urgent action, thousands of lives could be lost.
An estimated half a million civilians remain trapped in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, where the Rapid Support Forces have kept the city under siege for more than a year. Humanitarian agencies have been barred from bringing in food or medical supplies by road, leaving families to survive on what little remains in local markets and pushing many into extreme hunger. Across Sudan, more than 24 million people are facing starvation, with millions already on the brink of famine. UNICEF reports that in the first five months of 2025, over 40,000 children in North Darfur were admitted for treatment of severe acute malnutrition , twice as many as the year before.
In the city of El-Fasher, roughly 260,000 residents, including 130,000 children, are enduring more than 16 months of isolation with no humanitarian aid, UNICEF warns. The siege has turned the city into what UNICEF calls “an epicentre of child suffering”.
The devastation is visible on the ground and from above. Photographs show The civil war has shown neighborhoods reduced to rubble, and markets that were once full of food are empty or destroyed, clinics abandoned, and schools have become shelters.
Beyond hunger, the siege has paralyzed healthcare. Hospitals in El-Fasher are cut off from medicines and supplies, and staff often go months without pay.
At the same time, Sudan’s once-strong vaccination system is collapsing. Just a few years ago, more than 90% of children were receiving routine immunisations. Today, that rate has fallen to less than half, the lowest in the world, according to the World Health Organization. Unlike in other countries, UNICEF officials stress that Sudan’s sharp decline is due entirely to war: This means children already weakened by hunger are now left unprotected from preventable diseases such as measles, diphtheria, and whooping cough.
Sudan is now described by aid agencies as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, yet international attention and funding remain far below what is needed. Families in El-Fasher say their most urgent needs are food and medicine, but without an end to the siege, neither can satisfied.