UNICEF views from Darfur: Children living on the edge of the abyss, and a city uprooted

Head of Communications at UNICEF in Sudan, Eva Hinds, was speaking to reporters in Geneva today, Friday, about a mission she had just returned from in Darfur, which lasted 10 days. She said: “Even with years of experience working in emergencies, what I witnessed was unlike anything I had seen before. The scale of displacement, the fragmentation of conflict and the collapse of basic services have created a situation where every child lives on the edge.”.

She noted that reaching even one child in Darfur could take days of negotiations, security clearances, and travel over sandy roads under shifting front lines.

But she confirmed that “This work is critical.”especially in places like the Tawila area from which she had just returned, where hundreds of thousands of children have fled unspeakable violence. She added “It is also the place where their families built an entire city out of sticks, straw and plastic sheeting. Nothing in this crisis is simple: every movement is made with extreme difficulty, and every aid delivery is fraught with danger.”.

“A city rebuilt from despair”

Regarding the situation in Tawila, the UNICEF official said about the vast area of ​​temporary shelters: “It felt like an entire city had been uprooted and rebuilt out of necessity and fear. It’s a city rebuilt out of despair, bigger than my hometown of Helsinki, and every one of those families is there because they had no choice but to flee.”.

Hinds added: “In that vast space, there were moments that will remain engraved in my memory.”.

She shared stories of people she met and including her “The aunt of a little girl named Fatima, who was brought in to receive treatment for malnutrition. Fatima lost her mother in the conflict. The aunt was holding the child tightly, doing her best to keep her safe.”.

Suffering that no one sees

The UN official confirmed that despite the difficulties, in just two weeks, UNICEF and its partners vaccinated more than 140,000 children, treated thousands of diseases and malnutrition, restored drinking water to tens of thousands, opened temporary classrooms, and provided food, protection, and psychological and social care.

The UNICEF official stated that Sudan is the largest humanitarian emergency in the world, “Yet it is one of the least clear.”.

She said: “Limited access, complex conflict, and overlapping global crises mean that the suffering of millions of children goes unseen.”.