Save the Children, Internationan NGO, claimed on Tuesday that four months into a war between opposing generals, starvation had killed at least 498 children and “likely hundreds more” in Sudan.
On April 15, a conflict erupted between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, around 5,000 people have been murdered and more than four million have been displaced.
“At least 498 children in Sudan, and likely hundreds more, have died from hunger, including two dozen babies in a state orphanage,” stated Save the Children in a statement.
Since the start of the war, the British charity has been forced to close 57 of its nutrition facilities, and stockpiles are “critically low” in the 108 that remain open.
“We never imagined seeing such a large number of children dying from hunger, but this is now the reality in Sudan,” said Arif Noor, Save the Children’s Sudan country director.
“Seriously ill children are arriving at nutrition centers across the country in the arms of desperate mothers and fathers, and our staff has few options for treating them.”
“We are seeing children die from completely avoidable hunger.”
Last Monday, the chiefs of 20 major humanitarian organizations issued a statement warning that “more than six million Sudanese people are one step away from famine.”
The fighting continued on Tuesday, primarily in Khartoum and Darfur, Sudan’s enormous western region that is home to a quarter of the country’s 48 million people.
The fighting in Darfur is concentrated on Nyala, Sudan’s second city, where the UN estimates at least 60 people have been killed, 250 have been injured, and 50,000 have been displaced since August 11.
On Monday, the army announced the death of its commander in the area.
Trucks providing supplies have been unable to enter Nyala, and the sole hospital remaining open in the South Darfur metropolis has been overrun with injured.
According to the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health, the RSF and allied Arab militias burned down at least 27 communities in El Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, this month.
“No one is going to stop them. “The RSF is moving freely while the army is cooped up in its bases,” Nathaniel Raymond, the Lab’s commander, told AFP.
Source: AFP
