A disaster never comes alone. Sudan, shaken by a war for four months, sees its children perish. Since the start of the conflict, at least 498 children “and probably hundreds more” have died of starvation, the NGO Save the Children reported on Tuesday.
In a country where before the war, one in three inhabitants suffered from hunger, “children are dying of hunger when it could have been avoided”, alarms Arif Noor, its director in Sudan, in a press release. “We would never have imagined seeing so many children dying of hunger, but this is the new reality in Sudan,” he adds.
A situation that will get worse
And the situation could get worse as Save the Children, unable to operate amid the fighting, had to stop treating “31,000 malnourished children”. In May, the factory that produced 60% of nutritional treatments for children was destroyed.
The war – which could last for years according to experts – between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (FSR, paramilitary) has caused around 5,000 deaths since April 15, according to a report by the NGO Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Acled). It also forced more than four million people to flee.
Humanitarians prevented from passing
Humanitarians, prevented from entering or circulating by the authorities and attacked, repeat that they have only received 27% of their funding needs. The Turkish hospital, the only one still functioning in Nyala, said it was overwhelmed by the influx of wounded.
Recently the war also reached el-Fasher, capital of North Darfur after, according to the laboratory in humanitarian research of the American University of Yale, at least 27 localities of Darfur were burned by the RSF and Arab militias allies.