UNICEF Sudan: ‘El Gezira violence endangers 3 million children’

Concern for the humanitarian situation in El Gezira is growing amidst a Rapid Support Forces (RSF) takeover of the state earlier this week. In a statement today, UNICEF warns that over three million children in El Gezira, many already displaced by earlier violence in Khartoum and other states, are at risk and in need of urgent aid.

In a rapid upheaval, more than 150,000 children in Sudan’s El Gezira have been displaced within a matter of days, facing a dire shortage of urgent humanitarian aid, the United Nations children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned in a press release today.

An outbreak of fighting in El Gezira, which fell to the RSF this week, has triggered a mass exodus from the state. Home to an estimated 5.9 million people, half of whom are children, El Gezira is now grappling with the consequences of an active conflict that has spread to 10 out of Sudan’s 18 states, UNICEF highlighted.

Since the outbreak of war on April 15, approximately 500,000 people sought refuge in El Gezira, nearly 90,000 of them in the state capital, Wad Madani. “Our colleagues in Sudan have heard bone-chilling stories of the harrowing journeys women and children were forced to make just to reach the safety of [Wad] Madani,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said.

Despite UNICEF providing aid to some six million children in Sudan and neighbouring countries, the organisation cautioned that “the scale of humanitarian needs continues to dwarf available resources and funding”.

All UNICEF humanitarian field missions in El Gezira have reportedly been suspended since December 15 due to fighting. This echoes warnings by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which said yesterday it was “forced to temporarily suspend food assistance in some parts of El Gezira, as fighting spreads south and east of Sudan’s capital Khartoum”.

Health crisis

Wad Madani is a crucial hub for essential services in El Gezira, including the sole kidney dialysis centre in the state. Already in May, Radio Dabanga reported that kidney patients were travelling from Kosti in White Nile state to Wad Madani to receive treatment, despite dwindling supplies.

Now, UNICEF fears that “attacks on these services could jeopardise the lives of thousands, including vulnerable children evacuated from other parts of the country”.

As covered by Radio Dabanga on Monday, the Sudanese Doctors Committee issued an urgent appeal to save vulnerable groups in El Gezira, including 251 children and 91 surrogate mothers who had been transported by staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from the Maygoma orphanage in Khartoum in June, and are “now caught in the crossfire”.

The health situation is further exacerbated by a cholera outbreak that has spread to nine states in Sudan, with El Gezira being the second most affected state, after El Gedaref.

Ed Damazin

Ed Damazin is receiving a high wave of displacement from El Gezira, as people flee violence to safer areas. Residents of Ed Damazin are reportedly fleeing further south in fear of the conflict spreading to Blue Nile region, sources in the area told Radio Dabanga.   

Activists and civil society leaders in Ed Damazin, the capital of Blue Nile region, painted a bleak picture of the humanitarian situation, saying the region faces a “severe famine threat” due to a failed harvest season and scarcity of essential goods.