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As 2025 drew to a close, the war in Sudan continued unabated. The largest humanitarian emergency in the world outpaced available funds to address needs, with the Sudan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for 2025 receiving only 40 percent of requested funds.The people of Sudan continued to pay the highest price in this war. They were displaced and lost their homes, jobs, family members, and their own lives. In 2025, the number of civilians killed in this brutal war increased significantly, and violations of international humanitarian and human rights law continued to deepen the crisis. Millions of children were not able to attend school and malnutrition rates increased. Conflict-related sexual violence continued to be used as a weapon of war and compound broader patterns of gender-based violence. The health system was heavily disrupted and overwhelmed with the increasing health needs and recurrent outbreaks, limiting people’s access to life-saving and essential health services. Agriculture was disrupted in parts of the country as farmers left their land or were not able to cultivate because of conflict. Drone strikes intensified, with a devastating impact on civilians and civilian infrastructure. Overall needs continue to grow, trauma is widespread, and service provision continues to be crippled. This is now a common refrain globally: war, violence, suffering, and a lack of funding to respond to the most basic of human needs. The lack of accountability for the serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses perpetuates further violence and strikes a chord of despair and disappointment. Once, a group of Sudanese women asked me why they don’t matter to the rest of the world. Despite these challenges, the United Nations and its partners—local, national, international—continued to reach hard-to access areas, delivered assistance, and, where security permitted, began to work with local communities and authorities on providing durable solutions for those who wanted to return home and for those who never left. The United Nations Country Team (UNCT) and its partners now encompass not only the initial humanitarian response, but also the efforts to strengthen systems broken or weakened by the war, support access to services, and strengthen protections. Mine action plays a critical foundational role in the work of the aid community. Demining offices, homes, and institutions allows the rest of us to do our work. Sadly, this work, which is gaining momentum, still faces an uphill challenge. Key to mine action is protecting children who represent the highest number of victims of unexploded remnants of war. I visited one of these mine fields in Khartoum and was struck by the determination and bravery of the national deminers. Every day, they wake up and go to work clearing mines.The UN must be present in the most challenging of contexts, and in 2025 we expanded our presence across Sudan. My responsibility is to ensure that the UNCT is present to provide much needed support to all Sudanese affected by the war, no matter where they are in the country. That said, localization is also a must in Sudan. The traditional humanitarian architecture needs to come down and a context-specific coordination system must be built together as the work of local and national organizations is fundamental to saving lives. As we enter 2026 and approach the beginning of the fourth year of war, it is essential that humanitarian truces take place to allow access to communities that have been cut off. These are the communities where malnutrition is pervasive. Ultimately, the only solution is to end the war.