‘No safe place left’ for children in war-torn regions of Sudan, says UNICEF

The war in Sudan, which continues to rage in its fourth year, has killed or injured at least 330 children in the first half of 2026, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on July 6. Darfur and the Kordofan regions have the highest child casualty rates.

Except for some small towns along Sudan’s western border with Chad, where the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) retain a foothold, the Darfur region has been under the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since November 2025, when it overran El Fasher.​

The last major holdout of the SAF in this vast western region, North Darfur state’s capital, El Fasher, fell in November 2025, when the RSF, after besieging the city for over 500 days, overran its defenses and killed civilians in what is estimated to be tens of thousands.​

The campaign had all the “hallmarks of genocide”, concluded a probe by the UN, several of whose agencies warned last month that these atrocities may repeat in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state.​

Laying siege for 500 days on this city, strategically located on the highway connecting El Fasher to the national capital, Khartoum, the RSF has been repeatedly bombarding its markets, schools, health facilities, water supply, etc.​