Introduction:
Malnutrition is the most common nutritional disorder in developing countries and it remains one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality among children worldwide.

Aim:
To identify the prevalence of malnutrition (underweight, stunting and wasting) among children under 5 years old living in Khartoum state, Sudan.

Material and methods:
A cross-sectional community-based descriptive study was conducted, to collect primary information from households using a scientific questionnaire, anthropometric measurements (mid-upper arm circumference – MUAC, weight and length/height), and clinical evaluations of the malnourished children to check the presence of severe protein energy malnutrition (PEM).

Results and discussion:
The results showed that socioeconomic factor, poor nutrition, and mothers' knowledge and feeding practices led to increase in the prevalence of malnutrition. MUAC indicator showed that 20.9% of children were badly nourished and 79.1% of the children were well nourished. In addition, to poor economic situation, the study found that about 15.4% of children were underweight, 8.8% were moderate underweight and 6.6% were severe underweight. The prevalence of wasting was 21.1% (12.3% moderate and 8.8% severe) and the prevalence of stunting was 24.9% (15.1% moderate and 9.7% severe). The World Health Organization standard showed that the prevalence of global malnutrition, moderate malnutrition and severe malnutrition was 12.8%, 8.0% and 13.6%, respectively. The National Center for Health Statistics reference showed that the prevalence of global malnutrition, moderate malnutrition and severe malnutrition was 23.1%, 10.2% and 12.9%, respectively.

Conclusions:
We conclude that improvements in child feeding, and better maternal education are needed to maintain the children's nutritional status.