Children in Sudan are going hungry in growing numbers as more than three years of war, deep poverty and a harsh climate combine to strip families of food and income.

At the teaching hospital in Port Sudan, staff describe a steady stream of underweight children. One mother travelled more than two hours from her village with her five year old son, whose ribs showed clearly under his skin after repeated bouts of malnutrition. She had delayed the trip because of the distance and the fear of medical bills, and came only when she worried he might not survive. The boy spent five days on the ward.

The wider numbers are stark. The global food security monitoring system estimates that 825,000 children under five will suffer severe acute malnutrition in Sudan this year, a rise of about 7 percent on 2025. In the first half of the year, UNICEF and partner agencies treated some 174,700 children for the condition. The Port Sudan hospital alone logged 433 cases between January and August.

A nutrition counsellor there said admissions keep climbing, so the 17 bed malnutrition unit now often holds three children to a bed, raising the risk of infections spreading. Therapeutic milk and other nutritional supplies are given free with support from the World Health Organization and UNICEF, but drips and medicines remain a heavy cost for families whose incomes have collapsed.

She added that poor diets among pregnant women, worsened by displacement and hardship, are putting newborns at risk of stunted growth. Winter also tends to bring more flies, which contaminate food and water, while mosquitoes spread malaria, and malnourished children are especially vulnerable to both.

The war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces has run since April 2023, and conditions are reported to be worst in the Darfur region in the west, which had already endured two decades of conflict.