4-10 January 2026 Sudan News Summary: one thousand days of war in Sudan

11 Jan

Arabic news roundup

By William Greenwood

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced on Thursday the launch of a campaign to vaccinate 6 million children against measles in Darfur states.
Measles cases have increased in central, southern, and western Darfur recently, amid a lack of effective vaccination campaigns and delays in vaccine delivery, and there are concerns that the combination of measles and severe malnutrition could lead to life-threatening complications.
The campaign, which began on Wednesday in Nyala North, Nyala South, and East Jebel Marra in South Darfur, aims to vaccinate 430,000 children aged between 9 months and 15 years.
UNICEF also reported the launch of the vaccination campaign in Tawila locality in North Darfur.
Tawila locality is home to approximately 655,000 internally displaced people, mostly children and women, living in overcrowded camps and in the open with a severe shortage of clean water, increasing the risk of disease outbreaks.

The International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) tracking matrix reported that hundreds of families have been displaced from various areas in Darfur and Kordofan due to fires and security disturbances.
It confirmed the displacement of 50 families due to a fire that broke out in the town of Asalaya in East Darfur State, noting that the affected families fled to open areas within the same region.
It indicated that 20 shelters were destroyed and 30 others were partially damaged by the fire, which occurred on Tuesday, January 6.
IOM field teams estimated that 2,000 people were displaced from the village of Sarha in the Umm Dam Al-Haj Ahmed locality of North Kordofan State due to increasing insecurity.
It explained that the displaced individuals moved to different locations throughout the Omdurman locality of Khartoum, and the situation remains highly tense and volatile.
From: Darfur24

English news roundup

By Samuel Hunt

UNICEF says the conflict’s 1,000-day mark shows a profound humanitarian crisis, with 33.7 million people, two-thirds of the population, in need of urgent aid and half of them children needing protection, food, healthcare and water.
Children in Sudan continue to suffer intensely: over 5 million have been forced from their homes, equivalent to an average of 5,000 children displaced every day since the war began, and many are killed, injured or displaced by ongoing violence.
WHO reports 201 verified attacks on health care since the conflict began, resulting in 1,858 deaths and 490 injuries, undermining access to lifesaving care and violating international law.
More than one-third of health facilities (37%) are non-functional, depriving millions of essential and emergency services even as outbreaks of cholera, dengue, malaria and measles spread.
WHO estimates that 13.6 million people are displaced, with the largest displacement crisis in the world unfolding as basic services collapse and disease, hunger and malnutrition escalate.

A drone strike hit a home in Sudan, killing civilians, including children and adults, illustrating how RSF attacks continue to strike family compounds and non-combatants across the country.
In Khartoum, street children known locally as “shamassa” (“children of the sun”) have been pushed into ever-worsening hardship by the war, living and working on the streets with little protection or support.
Many of these children have lost family members to drone strikes or other violence, including friends killed by bombardment while trying to survive in devastated urban areas.
The conflict has expanded the ranks of street children, as families are displaced, livelihoods collapse, and children are left to fend for themselves in Khartoum’s rubble-strewn streets.
Armed groups have recruited some of these vulnerable children into militias, exploiting their desperation and lack of protection as the war fragments families and social support structures.

Bill Greenwood