At least three babies are being born every minute in Sudan into conditions described as among the worst on earth, an international charity has warned, as the country's devastating civil war enters its third year with no end in sight. Save the Children reported on Tuesday that official data records 5.6 million births in Sudan since fighting erupted in April 2023 — around 5,000 children every day — in a country where millions of people survive on just one meal a day.

The war began on April 15, 2023, when a long-simmering rivalry between Sudan's military chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo — known as Hemedti — commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), exploded into open conflict. The fighting has since spread across the country, killing tens of thousands, displacing some 12 million people internally and driving more than 4.5 million refugees into neighbouring countries. The United Nations has called it the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Both sides have been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, while the RSF faces accusations of genocide in the vast western region of Darfur.

For newborns and mothers, the consequences are acute. Up to 80 percent of health facilities in conflict-affected areas are no longer operational, and the rate of maternal death during childbirth has risen more than 12 percent since the war began — from 263 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022 to 295 in 2025. The World Health Organization has verified around 200 attacks on health facilities since the conflict started, killing more than 2,000 people. In March, a drone strike on al-Daein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur killed at least 64 people, including 13 children, and left the entire hospital non-functional.