Sudan Braces for Worsening Child Malnutrition as Lean Season Starts

GEDAREF (June 1, 2026) – Save the Children predicts a rapid rise in child malnutrition in Sudan as pre-harvest season begins with bleak planting prospects three years into the ongoing conflict.

Between 60-80% of Sudanese people are reliant on agriculture for food or income,^[1] but the conflict, combined with climate pressures, has decimated farming. Further declines in cereal production are forecasted^[2] for the planting season, which starts this month.

Already about 19 million people – 40% of Sudanese - are facing acute food insecurity, according to the World Food Program.^[3] The conflict has caused the world's largest displacement crisis, forcing about 14 million people^[4] from their homes, reducing access to farmland, damaging infrastructure and irrigation systems, and causing shortages of seeds, fertilizers, and equipment.

In the eastern state of Gedaref, once known as the breadbasket of Sudan, the impact is visible in overcrowded nutrition clinics treating growing numbers of malnourished children. Omer*, aged 12 months, is one of about 50 babies treated for severe acute malnutrition in the past month at one Save the Children nutrition clinic, where staff say numbers are rising and set to get worse.

Omer's mother Reem*, 35, said her son had faced health issues since birth but his admission for severe acute malnutrition was due to the conflict, with less farming and more people to feed.

"The war has made life harder for us all as there is less food due to less farming and more people," said Reem, a mother of 10, who is feeding her son therapeutic milk every two hours.

Save the Children staff at the nutrition clinic said they treated more than 1,400 children for severe acute malnutrition last year, with 38 dying of hunger-related causes. So far this year they have treated about 200 children, and three have died. They expect numbers to rise rapidly in the lean season before the harvest starts in October.

Meanwhile, 37% of health facilities^[5] across Sudan's 18 states are now non-functional, according the World Health Organization, as aid cuts make those centers more difficult to operate. On top of this, the crisis in the Middle East has disrupted shipments of urgently needed medicines^[6] and therapeutic foods and lead to a spike in prices for fuel and fertilizer.

Save the Children's Sudan Country Director, Mohamed Abdiladif said:

"The situation for children in Sudan is deteriorating even further as this conflict continues, with millions of children in the country impacted. What should be one of the country's most productive agricultural regions is now struggling to feed its own people, with families pushed to the brink. Children are arriving at clinics dangerously malnourished, and without urgent support, many more will follow as the lean season sets in.

"The international community cannot look away. We urgently need increased funding and access to deliver life-saving nutrition and healthcare to children before this crisis spirals even further out of control."

With only 22% of the $2.9 billion UN appeal for 2026 covered,^[7] Save the Children is urgently calling for increased funding to the humanitarian response in Sudan to continue providing vital services to the most vulnerable communities across the country.

Save the Children has worked in Sudan since 1983 and provides programming for children and families affected by conflict, displacement, extreme poverty and hunger.  

*Names changed to protect identities

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Notes:

1. FAO detail 
2. Sudan: New FAO assessment warns of escalating food and livelihood crisis 
3. Famine in Sudan | World Food Program
4. Sudan: 14 million displaced; hunger and attacks on health continue as war enters fourth year | UN News 
5. After three years of conflict, Sudan faces a deeper health crisis 
6. Middle East Regional Conflict blocking lifesaving aid for nearly half a million children | Save the Children  
7. Sudan 2026 | Financial Tracking Service