Warning: This piece contains details that some readers may find distressing
Touma hasn't eaten in days. She sits silently, her eyes glassy as she stares aimlessly across the hospital ward.
In her arms, motionless and severely malnourished, lies her three-year-old daughter, Masajed.
Touma seems numb to the cries of the other young children around her. I wish she would cry, the 25-year-old mother tells us, looking at her daughter. She hasn't cried in days.
Bashaer Hospital is one of the last functioning hospitals in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, devastated by the civil war which has been raging since April 2023. Many have travelled hours to get here for specialist care.
The malnutrition ward is filled with children who are too weak to fight disease, their mothers by their bedside, helpless.
Sudan is currently experiencing one of the world's worst humanitarian emergencies. According to the UN, three million children under the age of five are acutely malnourished. The hospitals that remain are overwhelmed.
Masajed is a twin, she and her sister Manahil were brought to the hospital together. But the family could only afford antibiotics for one child. Touma had to make the impossible choice – she chose Manahil.
I wish they could both recover and grow, her grief-stricken voice cracks, and that I could watch them walking and playing together as they did before. I just want them both to get better, Touma says, cradling her dying daughter.
Across the whole of Khartoum, children's lives have been rewritten by the civil war.
As we delve deeper into the impact of conflict, we encounter Zaher, a twelve-year-old boy navigating the wreckage of his hometown. Having lost his legs due to a drone strike, his longing for prosthetic limbs illustrates the tragic fate faced by countless children affected by the violence.
Amidst despair, Sudan's children cling to fleeting moments of joy, such as playing football. But the memories of war linger, overshadowing the hopes for a brighter future.
