Twenty Years After Darfur’s First Crisis, Children Are Once Again at a Breaking Point
Geneva/Port Sudan, April 29, 2026 — UNICEF launched a new Child Alert on Tuesday warning that children in Sudan’s Darfur region are facing a crisis that parallels — and in some dimensions surpasses — the catastrophe that shocked the world two decades ago, as the country enters the fourth year of a devastating war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces.
The alert, delivered by UNICEF Sudan Representative Sheldon Yett at a press briefing in Geneva, painted a harrowing picture: approximately 33 million people in Sudan now need humanitarian assistance, more than half of them children. An estimated 15 million people have been uprooted from their homes, including around 5 million children.
In Darfur alone, more than 5 million children are facing extreme deprivation. Famine conditions were confirmed in Al Fasher in November 2025, and malnutrition rates among children have reached catastrophic levels in parts of the region, with Global Acute Malnutrition rates exceeding 50 percent in some locations.
A Record of Grave Violations
Since April 2024, more than 1,500 grave violations against children have been verified in Al Fasher, the regional capital that endured a long siege before the situation eased. These include the killing and maiming of over 1,300 children — many casualties attributed to explosive weapons and drone strikes — as well as sexual violence, abductions, and the recruitment of children by armed groups.
In just the first 90 days of 2026, at least 245 children were reportedly killed or injured across Sudan. UNICEF says the true figure is likely significantly higher, as many violations go unrecorded in active conflict zones where humanitarian access is severely restricted.
“Twenty years ago, Darfur shocked the world,” Yett said. “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. Today, as the war in Sudan moves into its fourth year, history is repeating itself in the darkest possible way for children in Darfur.”
A Generation Out of School
The destruction of civilian infrastructure has compounded the crisis. Health facilities have been attacked, looted, or forced to close; routine immunisation programmes have been disrupted. Disease outbreaks remain a constant risk, particularly for children already weakened by malnutrition.
Education has been devastated. Of the nearly 4 million school-aged children in Darfur, over 3 million are now out of school. Schools have been destroyed, repurposed as displacement shelters, or remain inaccessible due to ongoing fighting. The loss of structured learning is expected to have long-term consequences for an entire generation of Sudanese children.
A Crisis That Crosses Borders
The conflict is not contained within Sudan’s borders. Children are fleeing into neighbouring countries — Chad, South Sudan, Egypt, and the Central African Republic — arriving exhausted, traumatised, and malnourished. Host communities have shown remarkable generosity, but services are severely underfunded and aid organisations are struggling to meet the scale of need.
UNICEF says its 2026 humanitarian appeal for Sudan is currently only 16 percent funded — a gap that is directly endangering the lives of millions of children. Without predictable, sustained humanitarian access and urgent flexible funding, the agency warns that lifesaving services cannot be maintained.
“What is needed now is not abstract,” Yett said. “We need predictable, sustained humanitarian access and presence across Darfur — not temporary openings, but the ability to remain and deliver consistently and safely. Children in Darfur do not need sympathy. They need the world to act, now. An entire generation is at stake.”
— Image: Children in Darfur — UNICEF