France actively working to combat child malnutrition in Sudan, in cooperation with UNICEF's child

On 24 September 2026, at an event held by UNICEF on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly to mobilize the international community around the prevention of nutritional crises and famine, France announced its support for UNICEF’s Child Nutrition Fund.

The conflict in Sudan has sparked a famine, confirmed in 2025, and the situation there remains disastrous: 35% of the population – 19.1 million individuals – are suffering from acute food insecurity. The situation is especially critical for children under five: 825,000 of them are facing severe acute malnutrition, which is putting their lives in danger.

French support for the Child Nutrition Fund will allow a malnutrition prevention and treatment programme to be implemented in the Darfur and Kordofan regions, affected by armed conflicts. It will benefit 100,000 people, with the aim of caring for 80,000 children under five and 20,000 pregnant women and mothers of children under two. It will emphasize the importance of providing the nutritional intake essential for children in the first 1,000 days, the decisive window in their lives.

This French aid will be matched by an equivalent amount of funding from other donors committed to UNICEF, thus doubling the impact of France’s commitment to Sudan’s most vulnerable children. 

By contributing to UNICEF’s Child Nutrition Fund, France is reaffirming its determination to act, in Sudan and throughout the world, to combat malnutrition and protect child victims of conflict. The fight against food insecurity and malnutrition is a priority of France’s foreign policy. In the spirit of the Nutrition for Growth Summit (N4G), hosted in Paris in March 2025, France reaffirms that investment in this area is decisive for human development.