Sudan's raging civil war threatens the lives of almost 3 million children, the United Nations Children's Fund said Thursday, as fighting imperils what had become a safe haven for hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Fighting in the huge northeastern African nation has now reached Jazeera state, the country's breadbasket with a population of 5.9 million people — half of whom are children, UNICEF said.
"This new wave of violence could leave children and families trapped between fighting lines or caught in the crossfire, with fatal consequences," the organization's executive director, Catherine Russell, said in a statement Thursday.
The latest bout of violence broke out April 15, as Sudan's military and a powerful paramilitary force vied for power. Since then, heavy fighting has left hundreds of thousands of people facing the agonizing decision of whether to flee their homes or stay and risk injury or death in the violence. Cease-fires have failed to halt the struggle for power and fueled the growing humanitarian crisis.
Civilians are often caught up in the crossfire as neighborhoods are divided between the armed forces, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces, led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.
Some 9,000 people have been killed in the violence, according to the U.N., but local doctors groups and activists say the death toll is likely far higher.
Almost 300,000 people have fled Jazeera state, moving to the nearby Sennar state, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Dagalo announced the RSF had taken control of the state's capital, Wad Medani, which is about 60 miles southeast of Khartoum.
NBC News has not independently verified the claim.
Wad Medani has served as a key hub for many humanitarian operations operating in the country as it was largely removed from the front lines.
It also hosts the only dialysis center in the state, according to UNICEF, with hundreds of vulnerable children who had been evacuated from other parts of the country.
"Attacks on or disruption of these services would immediately endanger the lives of thousands of people, including children," UNICEF added.
The U.N. World Food Programme has already been forced to suspend food assistance in parts of the state, it said in a statement Wednesday, calling it a "major setback to humanitarian efforts in the country’s breadbasket."
"A place of refuge has now become a battleground in a war that has already taken a horrific toll on civilians," said Eddie Rowe, WFP representative and country director in Sudan.
Even prior to this latest escalation, 3 million children had been forced to flee their homes across Sudan, UNICEF said, with hundreds of thousands of makeshift camps in neighboring countries.
“This makes Sudan the largest child displacement crisis in the world,” it said.
Women and children had undertaken already perilous journeys to reach Wad Medani, which before the conflict was home to several thousand people.
But that too is at risk now.
“Now, even that fragile sense of security is shattered as those same children have once again been forced from their homes," Russell said.
