the head of the UN children’s agency said Thursday. With no end in sight to the nearly two-year conflict, Catherine Russell told the UN Security Council that children in Sudan are enduring “unimaginable suffering and horrific violence”. An estimated 1.3 million children live in places where famine is occurring, and more than 770,000 children are expected to suffer “severe acute malnutrition” this year – and without aid many of them will die, she said. Sudan plunged into conflict in April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions, including the vast western Darfur region.

Since then, at least 20,000 people have been killed, though the number is likely far higher, and more than 14 million have been driven from their homes. The UNICEF executive director said 80 percent of the more than 900 grave incidents against children reported in the last six months of 2024 were killings or maimings, primarily in Darfur, Khartoum and Gezira province. “Sadly, we know these numbers are just a fraction of  reality,” she said. (Jamaica Gleaner/AP)