Sustaining treatment in a growing crisis

Sudan is facing an escalating nutrition crisis, driven by conflict, displacement and worsening food insecurity. Millions of children are at risk of wasting, with conditions in some areas approaching or already reaching famine thresholds. In this context, maintaining access to life-saving treatment is critical to preventing large-scale loss of life.

Maintaining a continuous supply of life-saving treatment

With support from the CNF and its partners, UNICEF has kept a steady supply of life-saving nutrition treatment services in place, helping them continue despite major challenges on the ground. 

Through the procurement of RUTF and therapeutic milks (F75 and F100), this support helped treat at least 65,000 children with severe wasting, providing life-saving care through both community-based programmes and health facilities.

By keeping these supplies available through health facilities and mobile teams, CNF financing has helped ensure that children can continue to access treatment, even in some of the most crisis-affected areas.

Expanding access through strengthened delivery systems

This support has contributed to strengthening the systems required to deliver nutrition services at scale. Therapeutic supplies have been distributed through a nationwide network of more than 2,600 health facilities and over 180 mobile teams, ensuring that services reach children in both urban centres and remote, underserved communities. CNF-financed supplies covered 10 per cent of the total national need for these commodities in 2024 and 2025.

A diversified supply approach – including cross-border and cross-line delivery routes – has enabled partners to overcome access constraints and maintain the flow of essential commodities into high-burden areas. This has been particularly important in regions affected by active conflict, where traditional supply chains are frequently disrupted.

Across UNICEF-supported programmes, more than 5 million children were screened for malnutrition in 2024 and 2025, helping to identify cases early and link children to treatment before their condition became life-threatening. CNF financing has helped sustain the supply of essential commodities that make this early detection meaningful by ensuring children identified can access timely treatment.

These combined efforts – ensuring supply continuity, expanding service delivery platforms and strengthening community-level detection – are helping to stabilize access to life-saving care in an extremely volatile context.

While the scale of need continues to grow, CNF support demonstrates the critical role of flexible, targeted financing in sustaining essential services. Continued investment will be essential to maintain treatment coverage, prevent further deterioration of children’s nutritional status and protect the lives of Sudan’s most vulnerable children.

Read more stories of progress from Afghanistan, Burkina Faso and the Philippines in the CNF 2025 Annual Report.