GENEVA, Feb 10 (KUNA) -- United Nations agencies warned on Tuesday of an unprecedented deterioration of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan amid escalating fighting, the spread of famine and continued attacks on health facilities, announcing that malnutrition has risen to 4.2 million compared with 3.7 million last year.
This came during a joint press briefing in Geneva Spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Ricardo Pires and World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Sudan Shible Sahbani.
Sahbani said that more than 33.7 million people, nearly two-thirds of the population require urgent humanitarian assistance, while 21 million people need health services.
He also reported that 44,000 children suffered severe complications due to malnutrition and were admitted to treatment centers over the past year.
Sahbani further warned of a sharp increase in attacks on the health sector saying that WHO has documented 205 attacks on health care since the outbreak of the war in April 2023 resulting in 1,924 deaths and 529 injuries.
Sahbani noted that in 2025 deaths resulting from attacks on health care in Sudan accounted for 82 per cent of all documented global deaths from such attacks, adding also that 66 people were killed in four attacks during the first 40 days of 2026 alone.
Sahbani recalled the attack on the maternity hospital in El Fasher which resulted in the killing of more than 400 people inside the facility including patients health workers and visitors.
He warned that those attacks came at a time when the country is facing multiple disease outbreaks including cholera malaria dengue fever and measles alongside acute malnutrition.
Sahbani noted that WHO vaccinated more than 12 million people with oral cholera vaccines in 2025 and expanded the rollout of the malaria vaccine to protect nearly 220,000 children.
For his part UNICEF's spokesperson Ricardo Pires warned that time is running out for tens of thousands of children particularly amid soaring malnutrition rates especially among children aged six months to five years.
Pires expressed deep concern over attacks targeting humanitarian convoys warning that the destruction of infrastructure exacerbates human losses and undermines civilians' ability to survive.
He called for respect for international humanitarian law and safe unhindered humanitarian access stressing that emergency and response plans will remain of limited impact unless the fighting stops. (end) imk.aai