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Sudan: Tens of millions of civilians still bear brunt of war they did not choose
Aid agencies marked 1,000 days of war in Sudan on Friday with a grim reminder that the conflict has created the world’s biggest hunger crisis and largest displacement emergency. Every day, civilians have been “paying the price for a war they did not choose”, said the UN aid coordination office, OCHA.
Latest UN data indicates that 9.3 million people have been uprooted by conflict across the country and more than 4.3 million have fled across borders, placing immense strain on neighbouring countries. More than 21 million people are also believed to be acutely food insecure across the country.
Although many of those displaced have returned to the capital, Khartoum, massive challenges and dangers for civilians remain there, including from unexploded weapons. Elsewhere, fighting is continuing “across multiple fronts in Kordofan” further west, OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke said.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva, he noted that sieges have cut off the towns of Kadugli – capital of South Kordofan state - and Dilling - a town to the north of Kadugli - restricting food, healthcare and access to farms and markets.
In Darfur, meanwhile, “fighting on the ground and drone attacks from the sky continue”, while long-range strikes on civilian infrastructure have also been recorded far beyond the front lines, Mr. Laerke added.
Children continue to be killed and injured amid ongoing clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, with eight children reportedly killed in an attack in Al Obeid, North Kordofan, earlier this week.
According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), a staggering 5,000 youngsters have been displaced every day since the conflict began in April 2023. “Many have been displaced not once but repeatedly, with violence following them wherever they flee,” said UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires.
He warned that millions of children are also at risk of rape with survivors including babies. “Behind every one of these numbers is a child, frightened, hungry, sick and wondering why the world has not come to help,” Mr. Pires added.
Women are also victims of “rampant” sexual violence and abuse, with some 12 million people - mostly women and girls - at risk of gender-based violence, according to OCHA. “Female-headed households are now three times more likely to be food insecure and three-quarters of these households report not having enough to eat,” said Mr. Laerke.
The global crisis in humanitarian funding has impacted the UN’s work and that of its partners in Sudan, with only 36 per cent of the $4.2 billion requested last year finally funded by donors.
In light of this reduced financial support, for 2026, OCHA aims to assist 20 million people out of the nearly 34 million people believed to be in need of humanitarian support in Sudan. The plan has been costed at $2.9 billion.
“Today our call is urgent: first, an immediate cessation of hostilities and real steps towards a lasting peace,” Mr. Laerke said. “Second, adherence to international humanitarian law with access facilitated across conflict lines and protection of civilians including aid workers and civilian infrastructure.”
ends
1,000 days of war in Sudan – OCHA, UNICEF
TRT: 2’37”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 9 JANUARY 2026 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND & NOVEMBER 2025, TAWILA, SUDAN
Speakers:
- Jens Laerke, spokesperson, OCHA
- Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UNICEF
SHOTLIST
- Exterior wide, UN Geneva flag alley.
- Wide, UN Geneva Press room, podium speakers, journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, spokesperson, OCHA: “Today, the 9th of January 2026, marks 1,000 days since the start of the war in Sudan; 1,000 days of civilians paying the price for a war they did not choose. Nearly 34 million people need humanitarian support and the scale of suffering is staggering.”
- Medium-wide, TV journalist filming press conference, control booths in Press room, UN logo and podium speakers reflected in glass.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, spokesperson, OCHA: “Fighting continues across multiple fronts in Kordofan, sieges have cut off the towns of Kadugli and Dilling, restricting food, healthcare and access to farms and markets. In Darfur, fighting on the ground and drone attacks from the sky continue and we have seen long-range strikes on civilian infrastructure far beyond the front lines.”
- Wide, podium speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UNICEF: “More than five million children have been forced from their homes. That is the equivalent of 5,000 children displaced every single day since this conflict began; many have been displaced not once, but repeatedly, with violence following them, wherever they flee. Children continue to be killed and injured. Just this week, eight children were reportedly killed in an attack in Al Obeid, North Kordofan.”
- Medium, journalist.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UNICEF: “Millions of children are at risk of rape; survivors include children as young as one year old. Behind every one of these numbers is a child, frightened, hungry, sick and wondering why the world has not come to help.”
- Medium, journalist.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, spokesperson, OCHA: “Today our call is urgent: first, an immediate cessation of hostilities and real steps towards a lasting peace. Second, adherence to international humanitarian law with access facilitated across conflict lines and protection of civilians including aid workers and civilian infrastructure.”
- Medium, journalist.
- Wide, Tawila camp for displaced people, makeshift shelters, November 2025, credit OCHA.
- Wide, Tawila camp for displaced people, makeshift, November 2025, credit OCHA.
- Wide, large numbers children running and walking with empty food bowls in Tawila, November 2025, credit OCHA.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
ends