As heavy fighting continues between former allies the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and their allies, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that in parts of North Darfur more than half of all children are acutely malnourished.

The warning follows the release of new data from the IPC, a UN-backed global food security monitoring system, from three localities there – Um Baru and Kernoi and At Tine – indicating “catastrophic” malnutrition rates.

“Extreme hunger and malnutrition come for children first, the youngest, the smallest, the most vulnerable,” said UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires. “In Sudan, it’s spreading... These are children between six months and five years old, and they are running out of time.”