Ali noticed her son Adam had begun losing his appetite two weeks before she finally sought help. The distance to the hospital and her fears about treatment costs initially stopped her from rushing him for medical care. When his condition worsened, she had no choice.
"We spent five days in hospital while my son received treatment," Ali said. "He suffers from recurring bouts of malnutrition, but this time we brought him to hospital because I was afraid he might die." When Adam became ill, he would stop eating, she added, noting that she used to give him usual home meals of porridge and milk before doctors taught her about proper nutrients.
Adam’s condition reflects a wider crisis facing children across Sudan, where a civil war has continued since April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification estimates that 825,000 children under five will suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2026, a 7 percent increase from 2025.
UNICEF and its partners treated 174,700 children with severe acute malnutrition nationwide in the first six months of this year. Port Sudan Teaching Hospital recorded 433 cases between January and August. Maryam Gadalsid, a nutrition counsellor at the facility, said rising admissions forced medical staff to accommodate three children in a single bed within the 17-bed unit.
Gadalsid said medical staff assess each child before providing essential supplies, including therapeutic milk, free of charge with support from the World Health Organization and UNICEF. However, intravenous fluids and medication are a heavy financial burden for families struggling with the war-driven economic crisis. Inadequate nutrition among pregnant women, driven by displacement and hardship, also puts babies at risk.
The situation is severe in western Sudan’s Darfur region, an RSF stronghold that faced two decades of war before the 2023 conflict. In North Darfur alone, UNICEF recorded at least 40,000 malnutrition cases between January and May when the RSF imposed a siege on el-Fasher.
In Blue Nile State, Sabri Adam, deputy head of the committee at al-Karama 3 displacement camp in al-Damazin, said malnutrition cases rose from 1,800 in September to 2,116 in November. Of those affected, 1,760 are under five years old. Adam said the camp houses more than 7,600 children under ten among nearly 4,000 displaced families who fled military operations in western Blue Nile State.
"These families arrived at the camp in extremely difficult humanitarian conditions, amid limited funding and assistance from organisations," Adam said. The camp recently received cash assistance from the Red Crescent, with each eligible household receiving 620,000 Sudanese pounds, equivalent to about 60 US dollars at the parallel market rate.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warns of a growing famine risk across Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan. Conflict, mass displacement, severe drought and inadequate humanitarian funding are driving food security down. The El Nino climate phenomenon has caused reduced rainfall, leading to drought affecting roughly half the country. Nearly two-thirds of farmland in North Darfur and about half in South Darfur and Kordofan states have experienced poor vegetation growth.
Dr Ahmed Youssef, medical director of the paediatric department at Port Sudan Teaching Hospital, said malnutrition stems from war, displacement, limited nutrition awareness and accessibility in rural areas. Many rural families rely heavily on flour and milk, with meat largely absent from diets. Food contamination from unreliable electricity and a lack of refrigerators further complicates safe food storage.
Families often bring their children to hospital only when malnutrition has reached an advanced stage, Youssef said, citing financial hardship, treatment fears and limited education.
