A bloody conflict has been raging in Sudan for a long time. It is the weakest who suffer most: in the South Darfur region, according to Doctors Without Borders, “a shocking number” of newborns and mothers are dying.
The aid organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is raising the alarm about a dramatic increase in child and maternal mortality in South Darfur. “I have never seen such a crisis in my career,” said Gillian Burkhardt, who works for the aid organization in South Darfur. The death of mothers shortly after birth, newborns and pregnant women is in many cases preventable. “But here almost everything has collapsed,” said Burkhardt.
Doctors Without Borders reported in a new report 114 deaths related to pregnancy complications for the period from January to mid-August. The organization estimates the number of unreported cases to be much higher. Over the course of the year, the number of deaths rose sharply, according to MSF.
Births in unhygienic conditions
According to the report, most of the mothers and children died of sepsis – blood poisoning. Because only a few health facilities are still able to function, many women are forced to give birth in unhygienic conditions. In the Doctors Without Borders facilities in Nyala and Kas, 48 newborns died – only one in five babies with sepsis survives.
Power struggle between two generals
Doctors Without Borders is one of the few aid organizations that continues to be present in South Darfur despite the devastating war in Sudan. Since April last year, the Sudanese army under de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Burhan and the paramilitary RSF militia have been fighting for power. The militia is controlled by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo – often called Hemeti.
In the Darfur conflict in the early 2000s, the RSF, then known as Janjaweed, fought on the side of the government of the northeast African country. The militia under Hemeti’s leadership was accused of serious crimes against humanity. Burhan and Hemeti were initially allies before the rift between the two men plunged Sudan into chaos.
Dramatic situation in Darfur
The situation in Darfur in western Sudan is particularly dramatic in the current conflict: ethnic conflicts have flared up again, and there are reports of mass executions and rape. Amnesty International accuses the conflicting parties in Sudan of numerous human rights violations and sexual violence against women and girls. The United Nations (UN) warns of an impending genocide.
According to the UN, the conflict has triggered what is now the world’s largest refugee crisis. More than ten million people have been displaced or fled, many of them multiple times.
Acute famine
According to the UN, more than 26 million people, about half the population, are starving. In the Zamzam refugee camp in North Darfur, where more than 400,000 people live, the threshold of famine has been crosseda group of experts reported in early August. Declaring a famine means that people have been proven to have died from hunger and related diseases.
Doctors Without Borders estimated at the beginning of the year that two children die every hour in the Zamzam camp. In South Darfur, the aid organization said it examined almost 30,000 children under the age of two for malnutrition in August – one in three was acutely malnourished. This puts the figures well above the 15 percent that the World Health Organization defines as an emergency.