Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
Sudan is the world's largest humanitarian crisis, says UN
People gather to collect water in Khartoum, Sudan, May 28, 2023

THE war in Sudan has created the world’s largest and most devastating humanitarian crisis, with over 30 million people needing aid this year, the head of the United Nations children’s agency has said.

With no end in sight to the nearly two-year conflict, Unicef executive director Catherine Russell told the UN security council on Thursday that children in Sudan are enduring “unimaginable suffering and horrific violence.”

An estimated 1.3 million children live in places hit by famine more than 770,000 children are expected to suffer “severe acute malnutrition” this year — and without aid many of them will die, she said.

Sudan plunged into conflict in April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces burst into violence in the capital Khartoum, which then spread to other parts of the country, including the vast western Darfur region.

Since then, at least 20,000 people have been killed — the true number is probably far higher — and more than 14 million have been driven from their homes.

Ms Russell said 80 per cent of the more than 900 grave incidents against children reported in the last six months of 2024 were killings or maimings, primarily in Darfur, Khartoum and Gezira province. 

“Sadly, we know these numbers are just a fraction of the reality,” she said.

Ms Russell said sexual violence used to terrorise the Sudanese population is pervasive, with an estimated 12.1 million women and girls — and increasingly men and boys — at risk right now. 

The Unicef head said this was an 80 per cent increase on last year’s figure.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) secretary-general Christopher Lockyear told the council: “Both sides have laid siege to towns, destroyed vital civilian infrastructure and blocked humanitarian aid.”

The security council has passed resolutions calling for an end to the conflict but has failed to translate its demands into action, he said.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
School support staff members of Unison during a rally outside the Scottish parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh, September 27, 2023
Unison Conference 2025 / 19 June 2025
19 June 2025
People join civil society groups led by Stand Up To Racism during a counter-protest against a rally endorsed by Tommy Robinson in central London, October 26, 2024
Unison Conference 2025 / 17 June 2025
17 June 2025
Palestinians line up to buy dinner at a food stand near the beachfront at a tent camp for displaced people in the Gaza City port, June 14, 2025
Gaza / 16 June 2025
16 June 2025
Maxar Technologies via AP
Russia-Ukraine / 12 June 2025
12 June 2025

Kiev couldn’t have carried out its mission against Russian air bases on its own, says ROGER McKENZIE, while Starmer has no qualms about dragging us deeper into a conflict that could turn nuclear

Similar stories

In this photograph released by UNICEF, a 16-year rape victi
International Women's Day 2025 / 8 March 2025
8 March 2025
IMAN HAMAD of the Sudanese Women’s Union reports from a nation torn apart by civil war — one where both factions are now committing horrific crimes against women and girls in the conflict zones