Save the Children, an NGO, has reported that at least 498 children have died of starvation in Sudan over the course of four months of war.
They also noted that there could be hundreds more unaccounted for.
In Sudan, a country where one in three people were already suffering from hunger prior to the war, this dire situation has led to the tragic deaths of children due to starvation.
The director of Save the Children in Sudan, Arif Noor, expressed alarm at the fact that these deaths could have been entirely preventable.
“At least 498 children in Sudan and probably hundreds more have died of starvation” since the start of the war on April 15, he adds. “We never imagined seeing so many children dying of starvation but this is the new reality in Sudan.”
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 in Sudan, which experts predict could extend for years, has resulted in approximately 5,000 deaths since April 15, according to a report by the NGO Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Acled). This conflict has also forced over four million people to flee their homes.
The international community is grappling with the challenge of financing aid for displaced individuals, refugees, the injured, and victims of sexual violence in the face of this horrifying crisis. International justice is also expressing concerns about potential “war crimes.” Humanitarian organizations, hindered by authorities preventing their entry or restricting their movement and facing attacks, have only received 27% of the funding required to address the dire needs of the affected population.
As of Tuesday, violence continued, primarily in Khartoum and the western region of Darfur, which is roughly the size of France and home to a quarter of Sudan’s approximately 48 million people. The conflict has been particularly intense in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, where since August 11, there have been reports of “60 dead, 250 injured, and 50,000 displaced,” according to the UN.
The army reported the murder of its local commander in Nyala on Monday. The ongoing fighting is impeding the delivery of humanitarian aid, and the Turkish hospital, the sole functioning medical facility in Nyala, is struggling to cope with the influx of wounded.
In recent developments, the conflict has extended to el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. According to the humanitarian research laboratory at Yale University, at least 27 localities in Darfur have been set ablaze by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied Arab militias.
“Nobody stops the FSR, they move freely while the army is entrenched in its bases”, assures AFP Nathaniel Raymond, director of this laboratory which collaborates with the Conflict Observatory.