26 April-02 May 2026 Sudan News Summary: humanitarian crises across Sudan

3 May

Arabic news roundup

By William Greenwood

The Sudanese Doctors Network has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe threatening more than 100,000 displaced people in Blue Nile State, in the southeast of the country, as the rainy season approaches.
In a statement, the non-governmental medical network expressed its deep concern about the deteriorating humanitarian conditions of displaced people in Damazin, the capital of Blue Nile State.
It explained that Damazin has about 10 displacement centres sheltering more than 100,000 displaced people of whom 40 percent are children, while women and the elderly represent 60 percent of the total displaced population.
It added that the approaching rainy season portends an imminent humanitarian disaster, with the increasing likelihood of the spread of epidemic diseases due to the poor health infrastructure and the lack of urgent interventions to improve the living and health conditions of the displaced.
For weeks, Blue Nile State has witnessed escalating clashes between the Sudanese army on one side, and the RSF and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) allied with it on the other, leading to the displacement of thousands of Sudanese from several regions and cities in the state.
From: Sudanile

The al-Taboun administrative unit in Babanusa locality, West Kordofan State, has recorded more than 27 cases of measles, including 7 deaths, as the region witnesses a significant increase in the spread of the disease among children.
During the launch of the preventive health campaign for measles immunisation, the Executive Director of Babanusa locality, Suleiman Omar Bilal, warned of the worsening situation and its potential to become a humanitarian catastrophe due to the rapid spread of measles, especially given the complete lack of serums and vaccines in the area.
In North Kordofan, warnings have intensified regarding the deteriorating health situation in areas south of Umm Sayala, due to the significant increase in measles cases, coinciding with the absence of vaccines for both polio and measles vaccination campaigns.
The relevant authorities have called for urgent coordination with community leaders to facilitate access to unvaccinated children and to utilise health centres in the neighbouring White Nile State to provide services, given the logistical challenges facing the health sector in North Kordofan. Kordofan.

By Samuel Hunt

UNICEF warns that more than 5 million children across Darfur's five states face extreme deprivation, with over 1,300 children killed or maimed in Al Fasher since April 2024 and Global Acute Malnutrition rates "exceeding 50 per cent" in some locations
UNICEF Sudan Representative Sheldon Yett warns "an entire generation is at stake" while the 2026 Sudan appeal is only 16% funded.
The IPC declared famine in El Fasher in November 2025 and at least 20 further areas across Darfur and Kordofan are now at risk, with around 375,000 people at the most extreme level of hunger.

Sources: UNICEF, Al Jazeera, UN Women

"Abandoned" by the world, according to the UN's top official in Sudan, vast volunteer networks of nurses, cooks, couriers and undertakers are sustaining Khartoum a year after the army retook the capital.
Community kitchens (takiya), which prevented mass starvation when whole neighbourhoods were besieged, are scaling back as donations dry up and families struggle to find work in Khartoum's "shattered economy".
UNHCR has condemned a 24 April drone attack on one of its aid trucks in North Darfur that destroyed shelter kits bound for 1,314 displaced families in Tawila, warning of a "sharp rise" in UAV use across Sudan since the start of 2026 that has killed hundreds of civilians.

Bill Greenwood