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UN PhotoGENEVA / SUDAN UNICEF INTERVIEW
STORY: GENEVA / SUDAN UNICEF INTERVIEW
TRT: 06:30
SOURCE: UNTV CH / FILE
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNICEF FOOTAGE ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 11 FEBRUARY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
FILE - CREDIT UNICEF - 06 FEBRUARY 2026, GEDAREF, SUDAN
1. Wide shot, temporary makeshift shelters for displaced families at a reception centre
11 FEBRUARY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Eva Hinds, Chief of Advocacy and Communication at the UN Children’s Fund, Sudan:
“It is very close to three years of ongoing conflict, and in many parts of the country it really rages on. And children are, of course, the most vulnerable when we talk about conflict. There are millions of children who have had to flee from their homes, several times, not only once or twice, but more than that. Often times these children then end up in camps for internally displaced, and these are places that are very difficult, difficult places to grow up. And it means that they're in cramped spaces. They're in spaces where there's very limited access to, safe water, food, opportunities to continue learning. Their sense of safety has been shaken as they've been forced to flee, and they've seen things that many children have never seen and never should see.”
FILE - CREDIT UNICEF - 26 JANUARY 2026, TAWILA, SUDAN
3. Various shots, a child is being weighed and screened for malnutrition at a UNICEF-supported health facility in the camp
11 FEBRUARY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Eva Hinds, Chief of Advocacy and Communication at the UN Children’s Fund, Sudan:
“And UNICEF is, we are on the ground, with many of our partners, and we are there to provide different types of support, whether that's safe spaces, where these heavily traumatized children can, start receiving psychosocial support so that they can start going through the traumatic experiences, they have a space where they can feel or have a sense of normalcy for the first time. It's a space where they can play. They can be with friends, and they can start learning. So, this is one example. And of course, we also provide health care, whether that's immunization, we provide access to safe and clean water. We provide a nutrition support to children who are, suffering from, severe and acute malnutrition. So, it's a wide array of services that we provide. But of course, Sudan is an immense country. This place is big. This year alone is close to 34 million people who need humanitarian assistance. And the needs are just growing. And we are trying to keep up with that, as good as we can.”
FILE - CREDIT UNICEF - 06 FEBRUARY 2026, GEDAREF, SUDAN
5. Various shots, unloading of nutrition support at a distribution centre; children and women collecting water
11 FEBRUARY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Eva Hinds, Chief of Advocacy and Communication at the UN Children’s Fund, Sudan:
“Often times when the violence starts and people are forced to flee, it is very chaotic many times, and very scary and some of the children are separated from the adults that they are moving together with. So, part of our support is to make sure that we identify and support these children, and work on tracing the adults in their lives, then reunifying them. It's also about them providing safe interim care if the families cannot be located immediately. This is also a very important, and that helps to reduce the risk of exploitation. And then when it comes to, sexual violence it's critical to offer spaces that are safe, particularly for women and girls.”
FILE - CREDIT UNICEF - 06 FEBRUARY 2026, GEDAREF, SUDAN
7. Various shots, displaced women and girls in a tent
11 FEBRUARY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Eva Hinds, Chief of Advocacy and Communication at the UN Children’s Fund, Sudan:
“There are millions of people that have started returning across Sudan and particularly towards the capital. And I think what I hear often times when we meet displaced children and women and ask, what's the thing that you want the most? Most people say they just want to go home. And I think that's incredibly human. And I think probably rings true with all of us. And this is what some people have started doing. But often when they get back to home, home isn't quite what it was when they left. Many people come across their homes and houses that are being severely damaged or completely destroyed. Many times, these houses are in environments where there's very limited services available. So it could be that the whole neighborhood is cut out of water. Maybe there are no markets nearby. It could be that there's no functioning health services or then [no] personnel to provide these services. So, return is difficult. It's the same as there are areas that are a little bit unexploded ordnance. And that's, of course, very, dangerous to be around that. So, returning doesn't come without challenges, but we are there. Together with our colleagues we have programming, for example, in Khartoum, to then support the people, whether that's displaced or the ones that are returning.”
FILE - 06 FEBRUARY 2026, GEDAREF, SUDAN
9. Wide shot, temporary makeshift shelters for displaced families at a reception centre
11 FEBRUARY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Eva Hinds, Chief of Advocacy and Communication at the UN Children’s Fund, Sudan:
“I can tell you about a 17-year-old Doha that I met in Tawila, a few weeks ago. And I came across her with my colleagues. Tawila is a big site for internally displaced. This is a home for close to half a million people, if not even more. So, it is very humbling to be there. And it's a bit like being in a city of IDPs and this, 17-year-old girl, she just arrived. She arrived from Al Flesher, together with her aunt and her brothers and they were sitting all together, waiting to be processed and then receiving more information that way, would they stay moving forward.”
FILE - CREDIT UNICEF - 26 JANUARY 2026, TAWILA, SUDAN
11. Wide shot, UNICEF Representative interacts with 17-year-old Doha at the reception centre
11 FEBRUARY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Eva Hinds, Chief of Advocacy and Communication at the UN Children’s Fund, Sudan:
“Doha had traveled not only on foot, but then with donkey carts and cars, but a very long and exhausting journey. But despite this, this girl caught our eye because she was smiling, and she so desperately wanted to speak English. And I'm always so struck, when I see this in the middle of something that is very difficult, and there's hardship all around, that you see someone who is beaming. And we learned that her name [was] Doha. This means the few hours after sunrise and this girl, the light in her eyes, she really, she lives to her name.”
FILE - CREDIT UNICEF - 26 JANUARY 2026, TAWILA, SUDAN
13. Various shots, children singing and clapping at a UNICEF safe learning space
The big camp for internally displaced in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region is home to more than half a million people who live in makeshift huts of sticks, hay and plastic sheeting. Some families have survived in those harsh conditions for months.
Among them, 17-year-old Doha and her brothers and sisters reached Tawila after a three-day long journey from El Fasher by foot and donkey cart, exhausted and frightened. Home in the key city of Darfur had become too dangerous. Food was scarce. Health facilities were destroyed. School — once the centre of Doha’s days — was no more.
“This girl caught our eye because she was smiling,” said Eva Hinds, spokesperson for UNICEF in Sudan to UN News. “And she so desperately wanted to speak English. I'm always so struck when I see someone who is beaming in the middle of such a hardship environment,” she continued.
The first name ‘Doha’, also pronounced as ‘Duha’, is a traditional Arabic name that means “morning.” It is often used colloquially to refer to the period from dawn to sunrise.
“The light in the eyes of this girl showed she lives to her name,” said Hinds.
Before the war broke out, Doha was studying English and she was keen to know if there were opportunities to continue learning English in Tawila. She told Eva Hinds she’d like to teach others at some point.
“I'm always struck by how people are resilient and they're not giving up when the world is stuck against them,” said Hinds.
According to a recent report from the UN Human Rights Office based on victims and witnesses’ testimonies, more than 6,000 people were killed in three days when Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured the city of El Fasher last year. The key city of Darfur came under 18 months of sustained siege. This is where some of the most harrowing stories have emerged out of this brutal conflict.
“There are millions of children who've had to flee their homes several times, not only once or twice, but more than that,” underlined Hinds.
These children end up in camps for internally displaced which are very difficult places to grow up in. Children are in cramped spaces where there's very limited access to safe water, food and opportunities to continue learning. “Their sense of safety has been shaken as they've been forced to flee, and they've seen things that many children have never seen and should never see,” she said.
Their routines, their friendships, their sense of security have been completely upended, and they struggle with the most basic things such as getting food and enough water to drink and wash.
On the ground, the UN Children’s Fund and its partners provide different types of support: healthcare and nutrition support, but also safe spaces where heavily traumatized children can start receiving psychosocial support, so they can start going through their traumatic experiences, they have a space where they can have a sense of normalcy for the first time. It's a space where they can play, they can be with friends, and they can start learning.
But Sudan is an immense country with around 34 million people who need humanitarian assistance, and the needs keep growing. This is a challenge for humanitarians operating on the ground. The dramatic situation for children is worsening in conflict zones, where the risks of violence, including sexual violence, are escalating.
UNICEF works to identify and support children, looks for the adults in their families to reunite them and offers them refuge if needed. “With regard to sexual violence, it is essential to provide safe spaces, especially for women and girls.”
“Needs are skyrocketing and the funding is dwindling, it's a very difficult equation to make, and unfortunately, it's often the most vulnerable that pay the heaviest price, the children,” underlined UNICEF spokesperson.
Sudan is one of the countries that practices female genital mutilation. The UN Children's Fund and the UN Population Fund, UNFPA, have a joint program on the elimination of female genital mutilation, which the agencies continue to implement despite the challenges of a country at war.
“We foster girls' clubs as part of the programming,” Hinds explained. “These clubs are safe spaces where girls and adolescents come together, where they learn. It's a place where they can support one another and develop a sense of identity and belonging, and this is very much about the positive social norms. These clubs also play a critical role in encouraging girls to stay in school, complete their studies. And challenge harmful practices, including female genital mutilation,” said Eva Hinds.
In camps for displaced people, education and basic services provide children with a fragile sense of safety and stability. “Education is a lifeline,” UNICEF insists.
Despite ongoing violence in Darfur and Kordofan, hope remains the last refuge for thousands of children like Doha in Tawila, who dream of a peaceful Sudan and the chance to reclaim a stolen childhood.
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