THE conflict in Sudan has killed over 330 children and left 13 million more in dire need of humanitarian assistance as they face an “unrelenting nightmare,” Unicef warned today.

It called on the country’s waring fractions to protect vulnerable young people.

Sudan’s military, led by General Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by General Mohamed Hamden Dagalo, have been locked in a deadly power struggle for two months.

The fighting has killed more than 958 civilians, according to Sudan’s Doctors’ Syndicate, which only tracks civilian casualties, and the true death toll is likely much higher.

In a report, Unicef Sudan representative Mandeep O’Brien said: “Children are trapped in an unrelenting nightmare, bearing the heaviest burden of a violent crisis they had no hand in creating — caught in the crossfire, injured, abused, displaced and subjected to disease and malnutrition.”

Unicef said that $838m (£654m) was needed to address the crisis.

There are roughly 21m children in Sudan, which had a population of more than 45m before the conflict broke out.

The eight weeks of fighting have displaced more than 2m people across the country, with lawlessness and ethnic violence intensifying across the Darfur region, according to the United Nations.

Abdel-Rahman Sayyed, his wife and three children fled war-torn central Khartoum, the front lines of the action, after trying to hold out hiding in their home in the beginning.

But as their passports were buried under the wreckage of their home, they are among tens of thousands of people without travel documents trapped at the border with Egypt.

“We narrowly escaped with our lives,” the 38-year-old said.

He said he was stunned that Egyptian authorities would not let his family in, adding: “I thought we would be allowed in as refugees.”

Despite calls from international bodied for Egypt to waive entry requirements amid the crisis, the government last week intensified the rules.

Previously, only Sudanese men aged 16-45 needed visas to enter Egypt.

But on June 10, new rules require all Sudanese to get electronic visas.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zaid said that the measures are aimed at fighting visa forgery by groups on the Sudanese side of the borders.

Mr Sayyed described the June 10 decision as a “stab in the back” to all those trapped at the border.

“We’re forced to leave our homes,” he said. “It’s a war.”