6/3/2025 Sudan (International Christian Concern) — According to recent reports from UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, 15 million Sudanese children need humanitarian aid as Sudan’s brutal civil war continues into its third year. About 4 million of that figure are currently experiencing acute malnutrition.

Even more children have been forced out of school — an estimated 17 million, encompassing around 90% of the country’s school-aged population. Of these displaced children, nearly a third are under the age of 5, according to UNICEF.

More immediately, at least 5,000 children are missing and more than 3,000 have been killed since the civil war began in 2023.

The effect on children is a sobering reminder of the severe costs the war is exacting on Sudan’s civilian population. Unfortunately, this civilian influence is often intentional and has been used by both sides of the conflict to exact a psychological toll on the other side.

In January, the United States declared that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — one of the warring parties — was again in a genocide. “The R.S.F. and allied militias have systematically murdered men and boys — even infants — on an ethnic basis,” then U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, “and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence.”

The brutal fighting has killed up to 150,000 people since 2023 and displaced more than 13 million of Sudan’s 48 million residents, according to U.S. and U.N. estimates.

Sudan’s small Christian community has also suffered during the civil war. Constituting less than 6% of the country’s population, Sudanese Christian communities have experienced bombings, ground attacks, and occupations from both the RSF and government forces.

According to reports, 165 churches have closed since the war began in 2023. Some churches are used as bases for military operations in the war, with people sheltering there forced out or even killed to make way for soldiers. Members of the clergy have been targeted, with soldiers shooting or stabbing priests and others during their raids. The well-equipped SAF often bombs churches, indiscriminately injuring or killing those sheltering inside, including women and children.

Both sides of the conflict have been responsible for immense human suffering and have acted in ways that directly kill, harm, and displace civilians. Afraid of losing leverage or battlefield advantage, both sides have also blocked humanitarian assistance from reaching those in need.

Speaking to this issue, the White House last year called on both parties to “immediately allow unhindered humanitarian access to all areas of Sudan” and reverse their decisions to “delay and disrupt lifesaving humanitarian operations.”

However, recent freezes of U.S.-funded aid in Sudan have closed hundreds of aid distribution points, leaving tens of thousands of Sudanese civilians without food and medicine as famine conditions threaten the country and the fighting continues.

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