The United Nations has marked the third anniversary of the Sudan conflict with a stark warning that the crisis has escalated into the world’s worst humanitarian emergency, with millions facing hunger, violence and displacement.

The Global Nutrition Cluster warned on Monday that approximately 4.2 million children and pregnant or breastfeeding women in Sudan are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2026, amid ongoing conflict and the collapse of essential services.

The UN’s top humanitarian official in Sudan has issued a warning of an impending catastrophe in Darfur, where civilians are facing ongoing violence, sexual abuse, and starvation.

At least 46 people, the majority of them women and children, have died from malnutrition in Sudan’s South Kordofan state over the past two months, according to a statement released Saturday by Sudan’s Doctors Network.

Sudan is grappling with its deadliest cholera outbreak in years, with nearly 100,000 suspected cases and over 2,470 related deaths since August of the previous year, according to a warning issued by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Thursday.

Sudan has been engulfed in civil war since April 2023, with the power struggle between the army and the RSF leading to an almost nationwide humanitarian crisis.

Sudan’s childhood immunization rate has plummeted to just 48 percent, the lowest in over 40 years, down from 94 percent in 2022, according to officials from the World Health Organization and UNICEF on Wednesday. This decline has left nearly 880,000 infants vulnerable to preventable diseases like tetanus, pertussis, and diphtheria.

Sudan is grappling with a worsening child hunger crisis, as new data from UNICEF released on Thursday showed a shocking 46% rise in the number of children treated for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) across the five Darfur states from January to May 2025, compared to the same period last year.

Conflict-driven displacement and the spread of cholera are intensifying humanitarian needs across Sudan, a United Nations spokesman has warned.

UN Secretary-General spokesman Stéphane Dujarric warned on Monday that the humanitarian crisis in Sudan is deteriorating as the conflict between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intensifies.