Unicef sounds alarm as funding cuts put Sudan’s most vulnerable children at starvation risk

Funding cuts are putting an entire generation of Sudanese children at risk of permanent injury, as support is reduced and malnutrition cases remain throughout the nation, according to the UN children’s agency on Tuesday.

Unhcr and other UN agencies are facing one of the greatest financing crises in decades, exacerbated by the United States and other donor countries’ choices to cut foreign aid spending.

“Children have limited access to safe water, food, healthcare. Malnutrition is rife, and many good children are reduced to just skin, bones,” said Sheldon Yett, Unicef’s Representative in Sudan, speaking via video link from Port Sudan.

Sudan’s conflict between the army and opposing Rapid Support Forces has uprooted millions of people and divided the nation into competing zones of authority, with the RSF remaining strongly established in western Sudan.

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Several districts south of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, are at risk of famine, the World Food Programme warned in July.

Children are being denied life-saving care as a result of financial cuts, despite the astounding extent of demand, according to Unicef.

“With recent funding cuts, many of our partners in Khartoum and elsewhere have been forced to scale back… We are being stretched to the limit across Sudan, with children dying of hunger,” Yett said.

“We on the verge of irreversible damage being done to an entire generation of children in Sudan.”

Only 23% of the 4.16-billion-dollar global humanitarian response plan for Sudan has been funded, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

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Access to areas in need also continues to be a challenge, with some roads rendered inaccessible due to the rainy season, hampering aid delivery efforts, Unicef said. Other areas continue to be under siege, such as Al-Fashir.

“It has been one year since famine was confirmed in ZamZam camp and no food has reached this area. Al-Fashir remains under siege. We need that access now,” said Jens Laerke of Ocha.