Millions of children are facing extreme violence and displacement in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, criticising the lack of international attention to the crisis.

The United Nations children's agency highlighted that two decades after the world was shocked into action over atrocities unfolding in Darfur, "history is repeating itself in the darkest possible way for children" in the region.

"Once again, millions of children are living through extreme violence, hunger, and displacement," Sheldon Yett, UNICEF's representative in Sudan, said.

"But this time, the crisis is deeper, and international attention is far from reflecting their suffering," he told reporters in Geneva via video link from Port Sudan.

UN rep decries lack of attention on Sudan

Yett drew a parallel between the current situation and UNICEF's first "Child Alert" report on Darfur, published in 2005, when global outrage sparked a massive humanitarian response.

"I was in Darfur 20 years ago, and we had every Hollywood celebrity competing to get on the plane, to get on the bus, to get in the car," he said.

"Now we have absolutely no attention on Darfur, no attention on Sudan."

The Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a conflict since April 2023 that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced around 11 million others and seen widespread sexual violence by RSF.

Children in dire need of humanitarian aid

UNICEF said more than half of the around 33 million people in need of humanitarian aid in Sudan are children.

In Darfur alone, Yett said more than five million children were facing "extreme deprivation."

The agency, he said, was therefore launching a new Child Alert for Darfur, where children were "at a breaking point."

"Children are being killed and maimed, uprooted from their homes, and pushed into extreme hunger, disease and trauma," he added.

Grave violations against children

The situation had been particularly dire in Al Fasher in northern Darfur, which was besieged for 18 months before it was captured by RSF troops last October.

"Since April 2024, more than 1,500 grave violations against children have been verified in Al Fasher, including the killing and maiming of over 1,300 children," he said.

Children were also subjected to "sexual violence, abductions and recruitment and use by armed groups".

Since the war began, UNICEF said it had documented more than 5,700 grave violations against children across the country, including 4,300 maimings.

Funding

In the first three months of this year, at least 160 children were reportedly killed and 85 injured, it said.

UNICEF's appeal for nearly $963 million for Sudan this year was so far only 16% funded, the agency said.