Food stocks are “critically” low as warehouses have been raided since a civil conflict broke out, according to Save the Children
At least 498 children in Sudan, including two dozen babies at a state orphanage, have starved to death as a result of food shortages caused by fighting between state forces and rival paramilitary troops, according to Save the Children.
“Never did we think we would see children dying from hunger in such numbers, but this is now the reality in Sudan,” Arif Noor, Save the Children’s country director in Sudan, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The organization reported that since the conflict broke out in Khartoum in mid-April, 57 of its nutrition centers have shut down, leaving 31,000 children without treatment for malnutrition and related illnesses across the country.
Staff in the remaining 108 functional facilities have “few options on how to treat” severely ill children because therapeutic food stocks are “critically low,” with emergency reserves being used in the “most extreme cases,” according to the agency.
The outbreak of hostilities on April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed around 4,000 people, according to official figures. The UN migration agency said earlier this month that about 3.9 million people have been displaced both inside and outside of the African country.
In June, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced a joint operation in which hundreds of children and caregivers were evacuated from the Mygoma Orphanage in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, to a “safer location.”
The move came after local medics and a volunteer organization that supports the state-run facility said the children were dying of severe malnutrition and dehydration.
