Hello and welcome to News Hour Live from the BBC World Service in London.

I'm Rebecca Keshby. In a moment we'll be heading for Dagestan where yesterday coordinated attacks on churches and synagogues left at least 20 people dead.

We'll hear from Russia's former chief rabbi, but first to Sudan, torn apart by civil war for more than a year,

with no immediate end in sight.

Millions of people have been displaced, and now the United Nations says it's one of the worst places in the world

to be a child with just about every school closed and millions of children facing

food shortages and even famine in some areas. of children's

in some areas. The humanitarian consequences of the war

have been catastrophic. The BBC's Barbara Plet Usher

has been speaking to the head of the UN's Children's Agency, Catherine Russell, in Nairobi as she was on her way to visit Sudan.

Sudan is definitely up there for a couple reasons. One, because it's the largest

displacement of children anywhere in the world, because we're seeing real

numbers and concerning numbers of children who are suffering from malnutrition,

including the worst form of malnutrition, which is severe acute malnutrition, which kills

children.

Almost all children here are out of school, so it is taken as a whole a very very dire situation for children.

According to one projection up to 5% of Sudan's population that's 2.5 million people

could die of starvation by the end of the year.

Is there already a famine in Sudan?

Well, it's, you know, famine is one of those things where it's, it actually has to be declared and there's a whole process that declares.

I think, I think the clear answer is that there is not enough food for many people here and many

people are on the verge of starvation and we are you know at the brink of famine whatever

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