An orphanage in the embattled Sudanese capital Khartoum has been evacuated. About 300 children were taken to safety, according to UNICEF. More than 70 children are said to have died in the orphanage.
According to UNICEF, 297 children have been taken from an orphanage in Sudan’s embattled capital Khartoum to a safe place in the north-east African country. The evacuation is a bright spot amid the ongoing conflict in Sudan, said Mandeep O’Brien, the Sudan Children’s Fund’s representative.
The children are therefore in the care of the Ministries of Social Welfare and Health. UNICEF supported the evacuation. According to the children’s charity, more than 13.6 million children in Sudan, which has a total population of almost 44 million, are in urgent need of life-saving humanitarian aid.
Children brought to new facility
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which supported the evacuation, reported on Twitter that 70 caregivers had been taken to the new facility with the children. The children had experienced “incredibly difficult moments” in the past few months.
Activist: More than 70 children died
Activist Nasim Sirag, who runs local charity Hadrien, told the AP news agency that the orphans were taken to a newly established facility in Madani, about 135 kilometers south-east of Khartoum, late Tuesday.
At least 71 children have died in the Al Maykoma orphanage since the beginning of the war in Sudan on April 15. Sirag’s charity cares for residents of nursing homes in Khartoum.
According to Sirag, the children died of diseases or starved to death. She and her carers were locked in the orphanage for more than seven weeks because of the fighting in the capital and could not have been cared for.
Negotiations suspended until further notice
In Sudan, army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the commander of the militia Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, are fighting for power. Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict have so far been unsuccessful. Aid organizations are prevented from doing their work and are attacked, although both parties to the conflict have promised humanitarian ceasefires.
Since the escalation of violence began in mid-April, various cease-fire agreements have been in place, but have repeatedly been broken. The last ceasefire expired last Saturday. Negotiations between the conflicting parties in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, moderated by the USA and Saudi Arabia, have been suspended until further notice.