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STORY: GENEVA / SUDAN WAR 1000 DAYS
TRT: 02:36
SOURCE: UNTV CH / OCHA
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT OCHA FOOTAGE ON SCREEN
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 09 JANUARY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / NOVEMBER 2025, TAWILA, SUDAN
FILE, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, Palais des Nations
09 JANUARY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, spokesperson, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Today, the 9th of January 2026, marks 1,000 days since the start of the war in Sudan; 1,000 days of civilians paying the price for a war they did not choose. Nearly 34 million people need humanitarian support, and the scale of suffering is staggering.”
4. Wide shot, briefing room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, spokesperson, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Fighting continues across multiple fronts in Kordofan, sieges have cut off the towns of Kadugli and Dilling, restricting food, healthcare and access to farms and markets. In Darfur, fighting on the ground and drone attacks from the sky continue and we have seen long-range strikes on civilian infrastructure far beyond the front lines.”
6. Wide shot, briefing room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF):
“More than five million children have been forced from their homes. That is the equivalent of 5,000 children displaced every single day since this conflict began; many have been displaced not once, but repeatedly, with violence following them, wherever they flee. Children continue to be killed and injured. Just this week, eight children were reportedly killed in an attack in Al Obeid, North Kordofan.”
8. Med shot, journalist
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF):
“Millions of children are at risk of rape; survivors include children as young as one year old. Behind every one of these numbers is a child, frightened, hungry, sick and wondering why the world has not come to help.”
10. Med shot, journalist
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, spokesperson, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Today our call is urgent: first, an immediate cessation of hostilities and real steps towards a lasting peace. Second, adherence to international humanitarian law with access facilitated across conflict lines and protection of civilians including aid workers and civilian infrastructure.”
12. Med shot, journalist
NOVEMBER 2025, TAWILA, SUDAN –CREDIT OCHA ON SCREEN
13. Various shots, Tawila camp for displaced people, makeshift shelters, children running and walking with empty food bowls
Aid agencies marked 1,000 days of war in Sudan today (9 Jan) with a grim reminder that the conflict has created the world’s biggest hunger crisis and largest displacement emergency.
Every day, civilians have been “paying the price for a war they did not choose”, said the UN aid coordination office, OCHA.
Latest UN data indicates that 9.3 million people have been uprooted by conflict across the country and more than 4.3 million have fled across borders, placing immense strain on neighbouring countries.
More than 21 million people are also believed to be acutely food insecure across the country.
Although many of those displaced have returned to the capital, Khartoum, massive challenges and dangers for civilians remain there, including unexploded weapons.
Elsewhere, fighting is continuing “across multiple fronts in Kordofan” further west, OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke said.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva, he noted that sieges have cut off the towns of Kadugli – capital of South Kordofan state - and Dilling - a town to the north of Kadugli - restricting food, healthcare and access to farms and markets.
In Darfur, meanwhile, “fighting on the ground and drone attacks from the sky continue”, while long-range strikes on civilian infrastructure have also been recorded far beyond the front lines, Mr. Laerke added.
Children continue to be killed and injured amid ongoing clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, with eight children reportedly killed in an attack in Al Obeid, North Kordofan, earlier this week.
According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), a staggering 5,000 youngsters have been displaced every day since the conflict began in April 2023.
“Many have been displaced not once but repeatedly, with violence following them wherever they flee,” said UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires.
He warned that millions of children are also at risk of rape with survivors including babies. “Behind every one of these numbers is a child, frightened, hungry, sick and wondering why the world has not come to help,” Pires added.
Women are also victims of “rampant” sexual violence and abuse, with some 12 million people - mostly women and girls - at risk of gender-based violence, according to OCHA.
“Female-headed households are now three times more likely to be food insecure and three-quarters of these households report not having enough to eat,” said Laerke.
The global crisis in humanitarian funding has impacted the UN’s work and that of its partners in Sudan, with only 36 per cent of the $4.2 billion requested last year finally funded by donors.
In light of this reduced financial support, for 2026, OCHA aims to assist 20 million people out of the nearly 34 million people believed to need humanitarian support in Sudan. The plan has cost $2.9 billion.
“Today our call is urgent: first, an immediate cessation of hostilities and real steps towards a lasting peace,” Laerke said.
“Second, adherence to international humanitarian law with access facilitated across conflict lines and protection of civilians including aid workers and civilian infrastructure.”
