One thousand days lost in conflict: the stolen future of Sudan’s children

PORT SUDAN (January 9, 2026) – As Sudan’s devastating conflict reaches the grim 1,000-day mark, global Christian humanitarian organization World Vision is urging the world to respond to Sudanese children’s cries for safety, peace and a return to normalcy. 

What began as a political crisis in April 2023, has escalated into the world’s largest displacement, with nearly 13 million people displaced. Multiple humanitarian agencies, including World Vision, are calling it the world’s most severe humanitarian disaster. Children are bearing the brunt of the conflict—robbed of their homes, education, health and hope for the future. 

Today, children make up 17.3 million of the 33.7 million people who require life-saving humanitarian assistance.  Girls and boys are suffering on an enormous scale: more than 5 million displaced; nearly 4 million children under age five are acutely malnourished; and hundreds of thousands are at imminent risk of death from hunger; and more than 13 million children are not in school.  

​“Children want the violence to stop; they want to live in peace; and they want to go home and for things to return to normal,” said Simon Mane, World Vision’s national director in Sudan. “The fighting has now been going on for 1,000 days, fracturing the futures of a generation of girls and boys. It’s time this stopped.”  

“The continued delay in securing peace and delivering adequate aid is a moral failure,” he added. “Every day, children face overlapping threats that demand an urgent, multisectoral, child-centred response.” 

Aisha (11), who lives in Sabreen camp for internally displaced people in East Darfur, says she wants to feel safe: “I want to sleep and not hear the sound of bombs anymore.”  

“I wish I could go back to my village, see my friends, and remember what it felt like to be safe,” echoed Hadeel (10), now a refugee in Adweil refugee camp in neighboring South Sudan. 

​“I just want to go back to school so I can learn to become a doctor,” pleaded Gamal (12), who lives in a camp for the displaced in South Darfur, reflecting the wishes of over 13 million children out of school.  

​World Vision encourages global leaders, the international community and the donor community to : 

• ​Urge all warring parties to agree to an immediate, permanent ceasefire and guarantee rapid, safe access for humanitarian aid across Sudan. 

• Increase funding to protect children and improve their health, education, and future well-being in Sudan.