In Sudan right now, becoming pregnant can feel more dangerous than walking through a battlefield because, in many places, it literally is the battlefield.
Since war erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in April 2023, the country’s fragile health system has been pushed past breaking point, and women and children are paying the highest price.

Hospitals have been bombed, clinics looted, roads cut off, and entire communities displaced. More than 11 million people have been forced from their homes, and children make up a huge share of this uprooted population.
While the world scrolls past headlines, mothers in Sudan are facing childbirth with no skilled midwife, no blood bank, no operating room and sometimes, no food.

This is not just “another crisis in a faraway place.” It is one of the largest humanitarian emergencies in the world today, with profound consequences for maternal health, newborn survival, child nutrition, and long-term development.
In this article, we’ll unpack what’s happening to mothers and children in Sudan, why it matters to all of us, and what concrete actions can still save lives.

1. A snapshot of maternal and child health in Sudan

Even before the current war, Sudan struggled with high maternal and child mortality. Under-five mortality in Sudan is about 50 deaths per 1,000 live births, with infant mortality at 39 and neonatal mortality at 25 per 1,000 live births far higher than averages in high-income countries.
These numbers represent thousands of families grieving babies who never got a chance at a first birthday.

Globally, about 260,000 women die each year from pregnancy- and childbirth-related causes, and more than 90% of these deaths occur in low- and lower-middle-income countries.
Sudan is firmly in that group, with maternal deaths driven by preventable complications such as hemorrhage, eclampsia, sepsis, and obstructed labor all problems that are treatable with timely, quality care.

Now layer on top a full-scale war: health workers fleeing for safety, supply chains cut, fuel shortages shutting down electricity for operating rooms, and families forced to travel days through conflict zones just to reach a functioning clinic. Researchers and UN agencies have warned that Sudan’s maternal health needs “urgent attention” as facilities close and women lose access to basic care.

2. How conflict is super-charging a maternal health emergency

2.1 A health system on the brink of collapse

The war has devastated Sudan’s already fragile health infrastructure. In conflict-affected areas, roughly 70–80% of hospitals are reported to be non-functional due to destruction, lack of staff, or lack of supplies.
Maternity wards that once offered safe deliveries are now burnt-out shells or occupied by armed groups.

For a woman in labor with complications, this can be a death sentence. Without access to emergency obstetric care a cesarean section, a blood transfusion, antibiotics, or even simple oxytocin to control bleeding treatable complications quickly turn fatal. The World Health Organization and Sudanese doctors have documented cases of women dying from hemorrhage because there was no blood, no operating room, or no surgeon available.

Meanwhile, attacks on health facilities continue. One hospital strike in West Kordofan killed more than 40 civilians, including children and health workers, and left dozens more injured.
Every bombardment of a hospital doesn’t just destroy a building it erases a lifeline for pregnant women and sick children across an entire region.

2.2 Displacement, hunger, and dangerous journeys

More than 11 million people have been displaced inside and outside Sudan since April 2023, with women and children making up the majority.
Many are now living in crowded camps, unfinished buildings, or with host families, often without clean water, sanitation, or functioning health services.

For pregnant women, displacement often means losing continuity of care. Antenatal visits stop. Screening for high blood pressure or anemia doesn’t happen. Women may not know where the nearest clinic is or may be too afraid to travel because of checkpoints, airstrikes, or sexual violence.

Hunger is another brutal layer. Over half of Sudan’s population is experiencing “Crisis” levels of food insecurity or worse, and famine conditions have been confirmed in some areas, particularly parts of Darfur.
In Kordofan, for example, at least 23 children died from malnutrition in just one month in late 2025 due to siege conditions and blocked aid.
Malnourished pregnant women are far more likely to develop anemia and complications during childbirth, and their babies are more likely to be born too small and too weak.

2.3 A “war on the bodies of women and girls”

Conflict in Sudan has also unleashed staggering levels of gender-based violence. Investigators and public health experts describe the situation as “a war on the bodies of women and girls,” with widespread reports of rape, sexual slavery, and targeted attacks on women seeking food, water, or firewood.

Sexual violence is not only a crime; it is a public health emergency. Survivors need emergency contraception, HIV post-exposure prophylaxis, treatment for injuries, and psychosocial care services that are increasingly difficult to access as clinics close and supplies run out. For those who become pregnant, trauma, stigma, and lack of safe abortion or antenatal care further increase health risks.

3. Children on the frontlines of the crisis

Children in Sudan are facing multiple overlapping threats: malnutrition, disease, violence, and the complete disruption of education and early childhood development. UNICEF estimates that millions of children more than 14 million are out of school as classrooms are destroyed or turned into shelters for displaced families.

Malnutrition is perhaps the most visible and deadly threat. More than 3.5 million children under five are estimated to be acutely malnourished, including hundreds of thousands with severe acute malnutrition who are at immediate risk of death without therapeutic food and medical care.

In some areas, humanitarian workers have reported an alarming surge in cases of severe acute malnutrition among children in the Darfur states, while news reports describe towns and camps where children are dying because therapeutic feeding centers have no supplies left.

Conflict also turbo-charges disease outbreaks. Cholera has spread across much of Sudan, with over 120,000 suspected or confirmed cases and thousands of deaths since mid-2024, hitting children and pregnant women especially hard.
Malaria, measles, and other preventable diseases are also on the rise as vaccination programs are interrupted and families crowd into unsanitary conditions.

In besieged cities like El-Fasher, UNICEF has warned that thousands of children could die from severe acute malnutrition if aid is not allowed through.
Time magazine and other outlets have described hundreds of unaccompanied children arriving in remote towns, traumatized and often severely malnourished, after being separated from their families during attacks.

4. What’s being done and why it’s not enough (yet)

Despite these dire conditions, local health workers, midwives, and international organizations are far from giving up. UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and many Sudanese NGOs are running mobile clinics, supporting maternity wards where they still exist, and providing safe spaces for women and children.

Practical interventions include:

• Deploying mobile health teams that travel to camps and remote communities to provide antenatal care, vaccinations, and treatment for child illnesses.
• Supporting emergency obstetric and newborn care in hospitals that are still functioning, including supplying blood, medicines, and equipment.
• Distributing iron-folic acid to pregnant women to reduce anemia and associated risks during childbirth.
• Running outpatient therapeutic feeding programs for severely malnourished children and providing ready-to-use therapeutic foods.
• Offering psychosocial support and gender-based violence services for women and girls who have experienced trauma.

These efforts are saving lives every day, but the scale of the crisis dwarfs the response. UNICEF’s Sudan humanitarian plan in 2024 was only about half funded, forcing tough choices about which communities receive support and which are left waiting.
Aid workers on the ground have been blunt: without a dramatic change in access and funding, mothers and children will continue to die in huge numbers.

5. A call to action: what needs to happen now

Turning the tide on Sudan’s maternal and child health crisis will require more than sympathy; it requires coordinated action. Here are key steps the international community, regional actors, and individuals can take.

5.1 First, stop the violence and protect health care

No amount of humanitarian aid can fully compensate for an ongoing war. The single most effective “health intervention” would be a ceasefire that allows civilians to access care and aid workers to move freely. Parties to the conflict must:

• Respect international humanitarian law and stop attacks on hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and health workers.
• Guarantee safe, unimpeded humanitarian access, especially to besieged areas like parts of Darfur and Kordofan.
• Allow evacuation of critical patients and medical staff when facilities are threatened.

5.2 Scale up funding for maternal, newborn, and child health

Donors should treat maternal and child health as core, not optional, in Sudan’s emergency response. That means:

• Fully funding UN and NGO appeals that prioritize reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health services.
• Investing in simple but life-saving interventions, such as clean delivery kits, emergency obstetric care, newborn resuscitation equipment, and nutrition programs.
• Supporting training and retention of midwives and community health workers, who often keep services running when doctors have fled or hospitals have closed.

5.3 Center women’s leadership and protection

Women are not just victims of this crisis; they are critical agents of response. Many of Sudan’s clinics, community programs, and informal safety nets are led by women midwives, teachers, local organizers. Any serious strategy must:

• Fund women-led organizations directly, especially those working on maternal health, midwifery, and gender-based violence support.
• Integrate protection services into health and nutrition programs, so that women and girls can seek care without fear of violence or stigma.
• Ensure survivors of sexual violence have access to comprehensive clinical care and legal support.

5.4 What individuals can do from afar

You may be reading this from thousands of miles away, wondering what on earth you can do. Quite a lot, actually:

• Stay informed and amplify Sudanese voices. Follow Sudanese activists, journalists, doctors, and midwives. Sharing credible information may feel small, but it helps keep Sudan on the agenda.
• Donate strategically. Even modest monthly donations to organizations with a strong track record in Sudan such as UNICEF, UNFPA, MSF, the International Rescue Committee, and others can help sustain maternal and child health programs through funding gaps.
• Advocate with your representatives. If you live in a country that provides foreign assistance, you can nudge your elected officials to support robust humanitarian funding and diplomatic efforts focused on Sudan.

None of us can end the war alone. But together through political pressure, financial support, and sustained attention we can make sure mothers are not left to give birth in the dark, and children are not left to starve in silence.

6. Experiences and human stories behind the statistics

Statistics can sound abstract until you imagine a single person behind each number. To understand the maternal and child health crisis in Sudan, it helps to picture what daily life looks like for families navigating this disaster.

6.1 A mother’s journey to care

Imagine Aisha, a pregnant woman in South Darfur. She has already lost one child in infancy to pneumonia. When fighting erupted near her village, her family fled on foot, carrying only a few belongings. Aisha walked for hours each day despite being in her third trimester, stopping in dry riverbeds and abandoned schools to rest at night.

Weeks later, contractions start earlier than expected. The nearest functioning clinic is several hours away, across checkpoints controlled by different armed groups. Public transport no longer runs, and fuel prices have soared. A neighbor finds a motorcycle, but there’s no helmet, no proper seat, and the road is rough. Every bump sends a sharp pain through Aisha’s back.

When they finally reach the clinic, the waiting room is overflowing. One exhausted midwife is juggling multiple laboring women at once. There is no ultrasound machine and no laboratory; diagnosis is based on clinical judgment and experience. Supplies are limited: a single bag of IV fluids, a few syringes, and a small box of gloves meant to last the week.

Aisha begins to hemorrhage after giving birth. In a well-equipped hospital, this would be terrifying but usually manageable: uterotonic drugs, blood transfusion, surgery if needed. Here, the midwife works with what she has manual techniques, the last vial of oxytocin, firm pressure on the uterus while other patients wait in pain. There is no blood bank to fall back on. Every minute feels like a coin toss between life and death.

When stories like this are multiplied by thousands of women, “maternal mortality ratio” stops being an abstract metric and becomes a description of countless near-misses and tragedies playing out every day across Sudan.

6.2 A child growing up in siege

Now picture Adam, a five-year-old boy in a besieged city. He used to attend a small neighborhood school; it’s now a shelter for displaced families, with classrooms crowded by mattresses and cooking fires in the hallways. Water is scarce and often contaminated, and latrines are overflowing.

Adam’s mother has to choose each day which risk is worse: staying home with no food or venturing out to look for aid distributions where shelling and gunfire are common. When she does manage to bring food, it’s usually not enough for everyone. She gives priority to the youngest children, but Adam is already losing weight. His hair is thinning, his energy fading. A persistent cough and diarrhea make things worse.

When an NGO finally opens a small nutrition center in their area, Adam is screened and classified as severely acutely malnourished. He is given therapeutic food and basic treatment for infections, but the program’s future is uncertain. Supplies arrive sporadically, staff are overstretched, and renewed fighting could force the center to close at any time.

For children like Adam, the crisis is not just about surviving this month’s cholera outbreak or this year’s famine risk; it’s about what kind of future is left after years of interrupted schooling, chronic malnutrition, and trauma. Early childhood experiences shape brain development, school readiness, and long-term health. In Sudan today, those early moments are being shattered for an entire generation.

6.3 The resilience of Sudan’s health workers

There is another, quieter kind of heroism unfolding daily: the resilience of Sudan’s health workers. Many midwives and nurses have chosen to stay in their communities despite danger and delayed or unpaid salaries. They deliver babies by the light of mobile phones when generators fail, improvise with limited supplies, and provide comfort when there is little else to offer.

One report documented a midwife who walked for hours each day between villages, carrying a small backpack with basic delivery supplies and a notebook to track pregnancies. She is not alone. Across Sudan, local staff and volunteers are holding the line of care under conditions that would overwhelm most of us.

Their commitment is a reminder that, even in the worst crises, there is a foundation to rebuild on if the world steps up with the political will and resources they need. Supporting them is not charity; it is solidarity with professionals doing some of the hardest, most essential work on the planet.

The maternal and child health crisis in Sudan is, at its heart, a test of global conscience. Every mother deserves a safe birth. Every child deserves a fair shot at a healthy life. The question is whether we will treat those principles as slogans or as a call to action.

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