CAIRO, Egypt
Starvation has killed at least 498 children and "likely hundreds more" in Sudan four months into a war between rival generals, Save the Children said on Tuesday.
The conflict between the army
under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces
(RSF) commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo broke out on April 15.
Around 5,000 people have been
killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, and
more than 4 million have been uprooted.
"At least 498 children in Sudan
and likely hundreds more have died from hunger, including two dozen babies in a
state orphanage," Save the Children said in a statement.
The British charity said it
had been forced to close 57 of its nutrition facilities since the war began and
that stocks were running "critically low" in the 108 it still
operates.
"Never did we think we
would see children dying from hunger in such numbers, but this is now the
reality in Sudan," said Save the Children's Sudan country director, Arif
Noor.
"Seriously ill children
are arriving in the arms of desperate mothers and fathers at nutrition centers
across the country and our staff have few options on how to treat them."
"We are seeing children
dying from entirely preventable hunger."
In a statement last week, the
heads of 20 international humanitarian organisations warned that "more
than 6 million Sudanese people are one step away from famine."
The violence continued on
Tuesday, mainly in Khartoum and Darfur, a vast western region that is home to a
quarter of Sudan's 48 million population.
The fighting in Darfur is
concentrated in Nyala, Sudan's second city, where the United Nations says at
least 60 people have been killed, 250 wounded and 50,000 since August 11.
Trucks carrying aid have been
unable to gain access to Nyala, while the only hospital still operating in the
South Darfur capital says it has been overwhelmed with wounded.
The war spread this month to
the North Darfur state capital of El Fasher, with at least 27 localities burned
down by the RSF and allied Arab militias, according to the Humanitarian
Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health.
"No one is stopping them.
The RSF are moving freely while the army is turtled in its bases,"
Nathaniel Raymond, who heads the Lab, told AFP.
No comments:
Post a Comment