Funding cuts are pushing Sudan’s children to the brink of irreversible harm, the U.N. children’s agency has warned. UNHCR and other U.N. agencies face one of the worst aid crises in decades, worsened by U.S. and donor funding cuts.
Sheldon Yett, UNICEF’s Sudan representative, described children as “reduced to skin and bones” amid rising malnutrition and scarce access to water and healthcare.
Sudan’s ongoing conflict between the General Abdel Fattah al Burhan’s army and Rapid Support Forces has displaced millions and fractured the country into rival zones of control.
The World Food Programme said areas south of Khartoum are now at serious risk of famine as the crisis deepens. Funding cuts are forcing partners to scale back vital services, leaving many children to suffer from hunger and lack of medical aid.
“We are stretched to the limit, with children dying of hunger,” Yett said, warning of lasting damage to a whole generation. Only 23% of the $4.6 billion humanitarian response plan for Sudan has been funded, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported.
Jens Laerke of OCHA emphasized the urgency, recalling that a famine was declared a year ago at ZamZam camp with no food reaching the area since. As Sudan’s children face a harsh future, the world’s silence risks condemning a generation to irreversible loss and suffering.
