Geneva: United Nations agencies warned on Tuesday of an unprecedented deterioration of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan amid escalating fighting, the spread of famine, and continued attacks on health facilities, announcing that malnutrition has risen to 4.2 million compared with 3.7 million last year. This alarming situation was highlighted during a joint press briefing in Geneva by Ricardo Pires, Spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and Shible Sahbani, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Sudan.
According to Kuwait News Agency, Sahbani stated that more than 33.7 million people, nearly two-thirds of the population, require urgent humanitarian assistance, with 21 million people in need of health services. He reported that 44,000 children suffered severe complications due to malnutrition and were admitted to treatment centers over the past year.
Sahbani further warned of a sharp increase in attacks on the health sector, noting that WHO has documented 205 attacks on health care since the outbreak of the war in April 2023, resulting in 1,924 deaths and 529 injuries. He noted that in 2025, deaths from attacks on health care in Sudan accounted for 82 percent of all documented global deaths from such attacks. Additionally, 66 people were killed in four attacks during the first 40 days of 2026.
Sahbani recalled the attack on the maternity hospital in El Fasher, which resulted in the killing of more than 400 people inside the facility, including patients, health workers, and visitors. He warned that these attacks are occurring as the country faces multiple disease outbreaks, including cholera, malaria, dengue fever, and measles, alongside acute malnutrition.
Sahbani noted that WHO vaccinated more than 12 million people with oral cholera vaccines in 2025 and expanded the rollout of the malaria vaccine to protect nearly 220,000 children. UNICEF's spokesperson, Ricardo Pires, emphasized that time is running out for tens of thousands of children, particularly amid soaring malnutrition rates, especially among children aged six months to five years.
Pires expressed deep concern over attacks targeting humanitarian convoys, warning that the destruction of infrastructure exacerbates human losses and undermines civilians' ability to survive. He called for respect for international humanitarian law and safe, unhindered humanitarian access, stressing that emergency and response plans will remain of limited impact unless the fighting stops.