Amina was sick and starving – until she received life-saving food provided by people like you.
Famine is forcing mothers to feed their starving children grass
Every second, a child in Sudan edges closer to death. After more than two years of war, a rare and deadly famine is sweeping quickly across the country – trapping families in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Over 400,000 children are close to death from malnutrition and will not survive without immediate help. Mothers have no choice but to feed their hungry children grass – there is nothing else to eat. Almost half the population is desperately hungry and there has been an unprecedented surge in malnutrition cases in 2025. Children are dying every day because they do not have enough to eat.
In just four months this year, over 1,000 children died from a combination of hunger and disease. For those who survive, the damaging affects of famine will permanently damage their brain. Only immediate help now can save them from this nightmare future.
UNICEF teams are on the ground now in Sudan. Despite the dangers, with even aid convoys coming under attack, we are delivering life-saving food to families. But we cannot do it without you. Millions of children need help now. Please give what you can before it’s too late. Children cannot wait a minute longer.
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The situation for children like Umran is desperately urgent. Yet even severe acute malnutrition is preventable and treatable. But we have to be quick.
Starving babies like Umran can be saved – but only if we act fast
At just seven months old, Umran should be smiling, playing, laughing. Instead, he lays silent and still in his mother’s arms, weighing barely 5 kilos, his arms as thin as sticks. He cries with hunger, but there is no food.
A health worker measures his arm with a special tape to screen for malnutrition. The tape goes red and confirms the worst fears of Umran’s mother: her son is severely malnourished, in pain, and close to dying.
Thanks to support like yours, Umran was treated at a nutrition centre. And despite the severity of his condition, with ongoing care he will be able to recover. But countless children just like him won’t make it without urgent help. Every 20 minutes, another child starves to death in Sudan. You can help save them today.
In 2024 in Sudan, UNICEF provided:
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1.9 million
children and women with life-saving health services.
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431,015
children with treatment for the most deadly form of malnutrition.
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95%
of all life-saving therapeutic food.
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9.8 million
children and families with improved safe water and sanitation services.
Children in Al Fasher are struggling to survive the famine – you can help them.
Help bring a child back from the brink of death
Between January and September, 448,301 young children were treated for severe acute malnutrition – a 40 percent increase compared to last year. Almost half the population – 19 million people – face a severe lack of food. They are hungry, weak and struggling to survive.
That’s why your support now is so important.
With help from people like you, UNICEF last year distributed 438,000 cartons of RUTF – the miracle food that brings babies back from the brink of death. Already this year, with famine surging, we have dispatched 419,000.
In 2024 we provided nutrition screening for over 6.7 million young children, and supplements like vitamin A to 2.9 million children.
Thanks to our supporters, UNICEF is saving children from other threats too, including disease and conflict. UNICEF efforts to combat cholera contributed to a dramatic reduction in weekly cholera cases, from a peak of 5,000 last year to 400 by December. And we delivered critical child protection services to over 2.8 million children.
But these deadly threats have not gone away. Children need life-saving help right this very minute. With your support, we can continue to save children’s lives.
Donate now
A miracle food for children
UNICEF supporters are enabling us today to reach thousands of children with ready-to-use therapeutic food, or RUTF. This is a peanut paste packed with vitamins and nutrients that save starving children’s lives. It doesn’t need water (which can be unsafe in crises like Sudan’s), refrigeration or cooking. And it can bring a child back from the brink of death in just weeks.
Time is running out to prevent a catastrophic loss of life
With your help, we can continue supporting these families and reach even more children who are in desperate need.
- € 0
can help provide vital high-energy biscuits to keep 10 children safe from malnutrition.
- € 0
can help supply emergency therapeutic food to 15 severely acutely malnourished children.
- € 0
can help give emergency therapeutic milk to 25 children too weak to swallow solid food.
Donate now
UNICEF teams are racing to find and treat children before it’s too late – but time is running out. With your help, we can reach more children and save them from famine.
Other Ways to Donate
You can make a donation by phone by calling 01 878 3000, from Monday to Friday between 9:00 – 5:30pm.
You can send your donation by post to Freepost; UNICEF Ireland, 33 Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin D01 R283.
In the unlikely event that the funds raised exceed UNICEF’s funding requirements for this appeal, your donation will be directed to where the need is greatest.