Children Dying Because of Hunger as Famine Risks Detected in Two New Locations in Sudan

Two more areas of Sudan have fallen into famine-levels of malnutrition, signaling a deadly expansion of a hunger crisis in the conflict-torn country that is threatening millions, Save the Children said.

New data released today by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), global acute malnutrition rates in the Um Baru and Kernoi localities have reached nearly 53% and 34% respectively, with concerns that nearby areas may also be experiencing similar catastrophic conditions, with the extent remaining unknown due to access constraints.¹

This latest announcement comes on top of an already severe hunger crisis sweeping through conflict-affected parts of the country, with famine confirmed in Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur in August 2024. In September 2025, the expanding famine was also confirmed in El Fasher (North Darfur) and Kadugli (South Kordofan).

For famine conditions to be reached, many people must already be experiencing an extreme lack of food, with starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels evident.²

In some cases, families have already sold all their assets including land and animals, with many others eating the seeds they had been saving for the next planting season, or selling their only means of income—including sewing machines and wheelbarrows.³

Across Sudan, acute malnutrition is expected to worsen in 2026 according to the alert, with a 13.5% increase in cases of acute malnutrition in children under five and pregnant and breastfeeding women—from 3.7 million children and women in 2025 to nearly 4.2 million in 2026. Violent conflict ensues, undermining humanitarian service delivery and disrupting people’s access to agriculture production and livelihoods, exacerbating vulnerability and suffering.

Severe acute malnutrition (SAM)—the most dangerous and deadly form of malnutrition—is expected to increase to 800,000 cases, up 4% from 2025.⁴

Severe acute malnutrition is a life-threatening condition requiring urgent treatment, which is impossible to access across much of Sudan due to the collapse of the country’s health system, with hospitals in conflict-affected zones no longer functional due to attacks, looting, and shortages of staff, medicines, and essential supplies.

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

"In many parts of Sudan, children’s lives are hanging by a thread, and some already dying from hunger related causes. Families who have escaped bullets and bombs and those who are in difficult-to-access areas are now facing extreme and life-threating shortages of food. Every day we hear devastating stories of parents selling the last of what they own simply to keep their children alive from one day to the next. Without immediate action, more lives will be lost.

"As our frontline teams in Sudan consistently witness, extreme hunger can be both life-altering and life-ending for a child. Children facing severe malnutrition have dramatically higher death rates—succumbing not only to starvation and dehydration, but also to preventable diseases that become deadly as hunger weakens their bodies.

"We urgently need donor governments to step up now to restore the lifeline before it breaks entirely, and to push for strong, sustained diplomatic pressure on parties to the conflict that protects civilians and guarantees safe, unhindered humanitarian access.

"Without this, any chance of restoring reliable access to food will disappear. Supporting mutual aid, strengthening communities’ coping capacities, and ensuring unimpeded, large scale humanitarian response are essential to prevent people from being pushed into starvation and to avert further loss of life and suffering.

Beyond immediate survival, childhood malnutrition causes irreversible long-term harm. Affected children often experience stunted growth, impaired cognitive development, and learning difficulties. They face elevated risks of chronic illnesses throughout their lives, along with lasting psychological trauma.

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

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[1] The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) defines famine as IPC Phase 5, the highest level of the IPC Acute Food Insecurity scale. An area is considered to be in famine when it meets the following criteria: At least 20% of households are experiencing extreme food shortages; At least 30% of children are suffering from acute malnutrition; Two people out of every 10,000 are dying each day from starvation or malnutrition and disease.

[2] The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) provides a common scale for classifying the severity and magnitude of food shortage and acute malnutrition.

[3] From the FAMINE REVIEW COMMITTEE: SUDAN, OCTOBER 2025 Conclusions and Recommendations: https://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_Famine_Review_Committee_Report_Sudan_Oct_2025.pdf

[4] From IPC Alert 5 February 2026 and UNICEF Report January 2025 https://www.unicef.org/sudan/stories/generational-crisis-looms-sudan

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