More than half of children in Um Baru in Sudan’s North Darfur region are suffering from acute malnutrition, including one in six with life-threatening severe acute malnutrition that can prove fatal within weeks without urgent treatment, UNICEF said Monday.

Around 500 children were screened during a nutrition survey conducted between Dec. 19-23, according to UNICEF. The assessment found that 53% of children were acutely malnourished, including 18% with severe acute malnutrition and 35% with moderate acute malnutrition.

"Children in Um Baru are fighting for their lives and need immediate help. Every day without safe and unhindered access increases the risk of children growing weaker and more death and suffering from causes that are entirely preventable,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said.

The survey indicates that Um Baru is experiencing one of the highest levels of malnutrition ever recorded, surpassing the World Health Organization’s emergency threshold of 15% by more than threefold.

"When severe acute malnutrition reaches this level, time becomes the most critical factor,” Russell said.

UNICEF said North Darfur remains at the epicenter of Sudan’s malnutrition crisis, with nearly 85,000 severely malnourished children admitted for treatment in the state by November 2025.

"UNICEF calls upon all parties to allow immediate, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access to ensure life-saving assistance can reach children and their families trapped by the conflict,” the agency said in a statement.

Sudan’s humanitarian crisis has escalated since fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted in April 2023, killing tens of thousands and displacing about 13 million people.

Of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF controls all five states of the Darfur region except for some northern parts of North Darfur, while the army holds most areas of the remaining 13 states, including the capital Khartoum.