Three babies are being born into Sudan’s war every minute.
How the number was reached
Save the Children says official tallies put the number of births in Sudan since the fighting began in April 2023 at about 5.6 million. That works out to roughly 5,000 children arriving each day in a country riven by violence and displacement — at least three every minute, the charity calculated.
These numbers represent real people. The charity said many of those births have taken place in overcrowded shelters, damaged clinics or while families are fleeing. Mohamed Abdiladif, country director for Save the Children in Sudan, said these conditions are ones "no child should ever face."
The conflict started on April 15, 2023, after a split between Sudan's army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan "Hemedti" Dagalo. What began as a power struggle quickly spread into nationwide fighting.
Hospitals, staff and supplies pushed to the brink
Sudan’s health system was fragile before the war. The fighting, and repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure, have left it on the edge. Save the Children reports that up to 80 percent of health facilities in areas affected by fighting are now non-operational. Those that remain open struggle with gaps in staff, medicine and fuel.
The World Health Organization has verified about 200 attacks on health facilities since April 2023, and said the verified incidents have killed more than 2,000 people. WHO’s verification is included in the charity's assessment of how care has been disrupted.
Maternal health indicators have worsened. Save the Children cites a rise in the maternal mortality rate from 263 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022 to 295 per 100,000 in 2025. That shift — a more than 12 percent increase — matters for mothers and newborns who need timely care during labour and in the hours after birth.
In March, a drone strike rendered the al-Daein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur non-functional after at least 64 people were killed, including children and health workers. Attacks like that remove critical capacity from communities already short of options.
Humanitarian fallout: displacement and hunger
Beyond clinics and hospitals, the fighting has uprooted millions. United Nations agencies and humanitarian groups say some 12 million people have been displaced since the war began. Tens of thousands are estimated to have died in the fighting, according to U.N. Statements cited by the charity.
Displacement means more than just losing homes. The charity warns that millions of families are surviving on as little as one meal a day. Pregnant women, new mothers and infants are among the most vulnerable to malnutrition and disease when food and clean water are scarce.
UN experts have also accused elements of the Rapid Support Forces of atrocities in Darfur that bear the hallmarks of genocide. Those findings have hardened international concern and complicated efforts to deliver aid into contested areas.
Political and economic implications abroad
The human toll is immediate. But there are political and economic ripples beyond Sudan's borders. Donor governments and international agencies face pressure to sustain and scale humanitarian operations amid donor fatigue and competing global crises.
These operations require funding. Aid budgets are finite, and the scale of need in Sudan pushes agencies to reallocate resources from other programmes or to ask governments for emergency funding. That means political debates in capitals about where to prioritise scarce funds.
At the same time, the inability to reach people in need — because health centres are attacked or territory is contested — raises practical questions about how to keep aid flowing without exposing staff to greater danger. Save the Children urged all parties in Sudan to allow humanitarian access and to protect civilians so that assistance can reach families in urgent need.
What the crisis means for Canada
For Canada, the situation presents several policy and practical considerations even though Ottawa isn't a party to the conflict. Humanitarian crises of this size tend to spur discussion in Parliament and among non-governmental organisations about aid commitments, refugee resettlement and multilateral diplomacy.
Canadian policymakers might get pressure from advocacy groups and diaspora communities to boost humanitarian aid, back U.N. Appeals, or open more resettlement spots for Sudanese refugees. Those calls often intersect with budgetary choices and public debate about foreign assistance priorities.
At the diplomatic level, Canada could be asked to press for accountability through multilateral institutions given U.N. Findings about alleged atrocities in Darfur. That would involve weighing how best to support investigators, sanctions or other mechanisms without foreclosing avenues for negotiation and aid delivery.
There are also operational ties. Canadian charities and faith-based groups already working on refugee and humanitarian issues may be drawn into intensified fundraising and resettlement work.
And Canadian expertise in health systems and maternal care could be requested in partnership with international organisations — though such deployments depend on consent from affected countries and security conditions on the ground.
Voices from the ground and the demands they make
Mohamed Abdiladif, Save the Children's country director in Sudan, framed the issue plainly: "These children are born in overcrowded shelters, under-equipped or damaged health facilities, or while their families are on the move," he said. "Children have a right to receive care and protection, even in conflict."
That plea shows a central dilemma for humanitarian responders: how to deliver basic services when the infrastructure that underpins them has been deliberately or unintentionally degraded by fighting.
International agencies have warned that without predictable access and security for aid workers, interventions meant to protect mothers and infants will remain limited. The charity called on all parties to the conflict to protect civilians and allow humanitarian access.
So the immediate conversation is medical and logistical. But there's also a political ledger: who funds relief, how much, and under what conditions. Those choices will shape both short-term survival and the long-term prospects for rebuilding health systems once the fighting ends.
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“Children have a right to receive care and protection, even in conflict,” said Mohamed Abdiladif, country director for Save the Children in Sudan.
This article was created with AI assistance.
