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- WHO data: 3.5 million Sudanese children are malnourished
JEDDAH: Adam Rijal, spokesperson for the Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees in Darfur, said that there had been a rise in malnutrition rates among children and pregnant women in displacement centers across the region, the Sudan Tribune reported on Saturday.
With data from the World Health Organization indicating that 3.5 million Sudanese children are malnourished, including more than 700,000 severely acutely malnourished and 106,000 suffering from medical complications, Rijal emphasized the severity of the situation.
Speaking to the Sudan Tribune, he highlighted the alarming number of daily child deaths in Zamzam camp and critical cases in Kalma camp, underscoring how malnutrition affected not only young children but also those with chronic illnesses and pregnant women.
Rijal pointed to the dire conditions in displacement centers, where eight out of ten residents face food shortages and inadequate access to essential resources such as food, medicine, clean water and sanitation facilities.
BACKGROUND
The war has sparked widespread hunger in Sudan after destroying infrastructure and markets and displacing more than eight million people.
He expressed concern about the emergence of diseases such as watery diarrhea and gastrointestinal infections among displaced individuals, warning of further loss of life if urgent humanitarian aid was not provided.
Despite recent efforts by the UN World Food Programme to deliver food supplies to Darfur, challenges remain, with the Rapid Support Forces opposing aid delivery through government-controlled areas.
The fighting in Darfur, with brutal attacks from the Rapid Support Forces on ethnic African civilians, is reviving fears of another genocide, back in the early 2000s, when as many as 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes, many by government-backed militias.
The UN said it had begun distributing food in the restive western Darfur region for the first time in months, following two successful cross-border deliveries in March, but the population still faces widespread hunger unless more help arrives.
Two aid convoys crossed the border from Chad into Sudan in late March, the WFP said, adding that it has been unable to schedule further shipments.
The current deliveries are expected to reach about 250,000 people and last for a month.