Sudan

Sudan is one of the world’s largest humanitarian emergencies and one of the gravest crises for children’s rights. Every day the fighting continues, another generation of children remains shut out of school. Yet amidst all this, there are stories of children who refuse to let go of hope. Vishna Shah, Director for Child Rights Advocacy and Campaign at Save the Children International, met some of these children during her recent visit to Sudan.

The consignment is enough to keep hundreds of health facilities running for 6-12 months, allowing hundreds of thousands of children to be treated.

Umran*, 52, has worked in Sudan for 10 years supporting Save the Children’s programmes in El Fasher and in Zamzam camp, where families have been living in famine conditions since August 2024. When fighting engulfed El Fasher last week, Umran witnessed unimaginable scenes of violence and loss. After the city fell, he walked for two days without stopping - out of fear of an ambush - together with other families and their children who managed to escape. He has now joined a team of Save the Children staff supporting families fleeing El Fasher to Tawila.

After walking for four days to escape the escalating violence in El Fasher, mothers arriving in Tawila in desperate need of aid recounted harrowing journeys, telling Save the Children how they were attacked by armed men on motorbikes and some robbed along the way.

Save the Children analysed casualty reports from the Sudan Doctor’s Network - a group of medical professionals tracking the war –in October and found at least 115 civilians were killed and a further 102 injured in six attacks on the besieged town. Among these casualties were 17 children killed, and 22 children injured.

Markets, hospitals, mosques, and displacement camps have been repeatedly targeted, leaving families without food, medicine, or safe shelter. Civilians attempting to flee face extortion, ethnic targeting, sexual violence, and killings along the routes, while prohibitive costs make escape impossible for most.

New analysis by Save the Children of Global Education Cluster figures showed that about 13 million of 17 million school-age children in Sudan are out of school in one of the world’s worst education crises.

Torrential rains caused a landslide in the village of Tarsin in the Marrah Mountains in the western region of Darfur on Sunday, cutting off road access.

Save the Children aid workers travelling on a herd of donkeys have delivered the first emergency medical supplies, food, water and tarpaulins to a remote village in western Sudan that was cut off by a massive landslide this week

In a collection of heartfelt letters written by children from River Nile, Red Sea and Gedarif, they are calling for peace and a chance to learn again in Sudan which is facing one of the world’s worst education emergencies with 17 million children out of school. Hundreds of school buildings have been damaged or destroyed since the beginning of the war in Sudan in April 2023, with over 3,200 schools (17% of all schools) being used as shelters.

Save the Children and its partners spoke to over 450 of these displaced children in Tawila for the assessment “Children Caught in Conflict”, with children describing traumatic journeys and expressing fear, grief, and a profound sense of uncertainty about their futures.

Nearly 1,000 people have been killed so far this year in Sudan while seeking health care or visiting loved ones in hospital

Thousands of families have arrived injured, traumatised and with no food or water in the town of Tawila after journeys of up to 70km (40 miles) on foot to flee attacks in Sudan’s Zamzam and Al Shouk camps, Save the Children said.

To mark two years of the conflict, Save the Children commissioned Sudanese illustrator Shiroug Idris – who was herself displaced by the conflict - to highlight the impact of conflict on children’s lives.

For nearly a year, people in ZamZam camp, Abu Shouk camp and Al Fasher town have lived under siege—cut off, starved, and terrorised. Over the past four months they have endured relentless attacks, including artillery shelling and ground incursions that have killed, wounded or displaced countless civilians.

Between February 20 and 26, Sudan’s Ministry of Health [1], reported over 2243 cases of cholera - or an average of nearly 400 cases a day - in Kosti. At least 70 people are confirmed to have died from the illness during this period.

These are the latest incidents in nearly two years of war with Sudan now facing the world’s largest displacement crisis with 14 million people forced to flee their home seeking safety.

"Children are famine’s first victims and are already facing avoidable and excruciating deaths due to malnutrition and disease," Mary Lupul, Save the Children's Sudan Humanitarian Director.