2023-09-19 11:16:49
According to the UN, around 1,200 children have died in refugee camps in civil war-torn Sudan since May. The children in nine camps in the northeast African country were victims of malnutrition and measles infections, the UN children’s agency UNICEF announced in Geneva on Tuesday. Because of the “incessant attacks” on health facilities and the poor nutritional situation in Sudan, it is feared that “several thousand newborns will die by the end of the year.”
According to UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), the children were under five years old. The deaths occurred in camps in White Nile state where refugees from neighboring countries have taken refuge. As Ilham Nour, WHO’s head of operations in Sudan, reported, a total of 3.4 million babies and young children in the northeast African country are acutely malnourished. According to UNICEF, 435 children have also been killed in the conflict since fighting broke out five months ago.
In Sudan, the troops of military ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF militia of his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo have been engaged in a bloody power struggle since mid-April. The generals took power together in a coup in 2019 and 2021 and later fell out over power sharing. Neither side has been able to gain the upper hand so far.
Nearly 7,500 people have been killed since then, according to conservative estimates by the non-governmental organization Armed Conflicts Location and Event Data Project. According to the UN, more than five million people have been displaced. In Khartoum alone, 2.8 million people have fled the ongoing air strikes, artillery battles and street fighting. International efforts to reach a ceasefire have so far been unsuccessful. Serious violence occurs once more and once more, especially in the capital Khartoum and the western Sudanese region of Darfur.
1695123018
#children #died #Sudans #refugee #camps
