Largest NGO Aid Delivery Since March Reaches Sudan, Courtesy of Save the Children

Save the Children delivered more than 40 tons of essential drugs, medical equipment and therapeutic food to treat children to Port Sudan, this week.

The delivery from Nairobi was the largest aid consignment by an international NGO since March 2025, when Sudan issued a nationwide ban on all imports from Kenya, applying to ports, border crossings, airports and entry points.

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

From Port Sudan, these supplies will be taken by road to reach children and families in the hardest-to-access areas across Sudan, including in Tawila, North Darfur.

The medicines in the delivery include essential drugs such as antibiotics to treat respiratory infections, fluids, multivitamins, and treatment for malnutrition. The delivery also includes medical equipment, such as thermometers, syringes and needles, bandage, gauze and dressings, IV fluids, gloves, masks and basic infection prevention items critical for providing health care and saving lives in emergencies.

More than 75% of health facilities in conflict-affected areas in Sudan are non-functional due to attacks, looting and shortages of staff, medicines and supplies. Millions of people, including children and pregnant women, are currently without access to even the most basic health care.

Outbreaks of cholera, malaria and measles continue to rise in areas where health, water and sanitation systems have collapsed, according to the UN, while Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates are alarmingly high, ranging from 38% to 75% in El Fasher and reaching nearly 30 % in Kadugli.

Mohamad Abdiladif, Country Director for Save the Children in Sudan, said:

“This aid delivery is a critical milestone and was only made possible through complex access negotiations and collaboration with government authorities. It is a lifeline for millions of people.

“Every box received and delivered brings us closer to restoring critical health services in Sudan.

“However, we need more deliveries, greater access and critically, an end to the violence. Sudan faces escalating malnutrition and famine risk, deadly disease outbreaks in overcrowded displacement sites and the collapse of maternal and child health services.

“Save the Children remains unwavering in its commitment to deliver life-saving health and nutrition services including mobile clinics and malnutrition treatment so that every child has a chance to survive and thrive.

“But we cannot do this alone. Donors and partners must act now to scale up food and nutrition interventions to avert famine, support health services and outbreak control to prevent deadly disease outbreaks, ensure education and protection for displaced children to safeguard their future and advocate for safe humanitarian access and sustained funding to keep aid flowing. Together, we can prevent a health and hunger catastrophe and give Sudan’s children the future they deserve.”

Save the Children is urging the international community to redouble efforts to demand an immediate end to hostilities and lifting of all sieges on civilian areas in Sudan to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access and a drastic scale-up of humanitarian assistance.  

Save the Children has been working in Sudan since 1983 and is currently supporting children and their families across the country, providing health, nutrition, education, child protection as well as food security and livelihoods support. 

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