THE war in Sudan has created the world’s largest and most devastating humanitarian crisis, with over 30 million people needing aid this year, the head of the United Nations children’s agency has said.

With no end in sight to the nearly two-year conflict, Unicef executive director Catherine Russell told the UN security council on Thursday that children in Sudan are enduring “unimaginable suffering and horrific violence.”

An estimated 1.3 million children live in places hit by famine more than 770,000 children are expected to suffer “severe acute malnutrition” this year — and without aid many of them will die, she said.

Sudan plunged into conflict in April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces burst into violence in the capital Khartoum, which then spread to other parts of the country, including the vast western Darfur region.

Since then, at least 20,000 people have been killed — the true number is probably far higher — and more than 14 million have been driven from their homes.

Ms Russell said 80 per cent of the more than 900 grave incidents against children reported in the last six months of 2024 were killings or maimings, primarily in Darfur, Khartoum and Gezira province. 

“Sadly, we know these numbers are just a fraction of the reality,” she said.

Ms Russell said sexual violence used to terrorise the Sudanese population is pervasive, with an estimated 12.1 million women and girls — and increasingly men and boys — at risk right now. 

The Unicef head said this was an 80 per cent increase on last year’s figure.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) secretary-general Christopher Lockyear told the council: “Both sides have laid siege to towns, destroyed vital civilian infrastructure and blocked humanitarian aid.”

The security council has passed resolutions calling for an end to the conflict but has failed to translate its demands into action, he said.