Sudan war: about 230,000 children and women are “threatened bystarvation”
The battles left thousands dead and 8 million displaced, according to the United Nations, and placed Sudan in “one of the worst food conditions in the world.”
Save the Children warned on Wednesday that approximately 230,000 children and women who are pregnant or have just given birth are “threatened by starvation” in Sudan, which has been torn by the war that has been going on for nearly a year between the army and the Rapid Support Forces.
The battles left thousands dead and 8 million displaced, according to the United Nations, and put Sudan into “one of the worst food conditions in the world,” according to what the local director of Save the Children, Arif Nour, said in a statement.
According to the NGO, “more than 2.9 million children suffer from malnutrition, and an additional 729,000 children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition,” which is the most dangerous form of hunger.
At the beginning of March, the World Food Program warned that the war in Sudan “may create the largest hunger crisis in the world” in a country that is already witnessing the largest displacement crisis at
the international level.
Bombing civilians, destroying infrastructure, rape, looting, forced displacement, and burning villages have become daily practices affecting 48 million Sudanese.
Nour said that the consequences extend to the long term, explaining that “the absence of an agricultural season last year means that there is no food today. Not planting seeds today means that there is
no food tomorrow.”
He stressed that “the cycle of hunger continues to worsen, with no way out in sight, but more misery,” while more than half of Sudanese, including 14 million children, currently need humanitarian aid to survive, according to the United Nations. United.
Sudanese refugees in Chad are on the verge of famine and aid may stop
The World Food Program said on Tuesday that food aid provided to hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees in Chad, some of whom are on the brink of starvation, will stop next month unless more
funding is provided.
Since the outbreak of conflict in Sudan almost a year ago, more than half a million Sudanese refugees have fled to Chad across the long Sahrawi border, and the country has now become one of the main
refugee areas in Africa, with a total refugee population of more than one million people.
The World Food Program says it is struggling to provide food for all refugees, and many are already not getting their full meals. Nearly half of Sudanese refugee children under the age of five suffer from
severe anemia.
“We have already reduced our operations in ways that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago, leaving those in need of food on the brink of starvation,” said Pierre Honorat, WFP’s Regional
Director in Chad.
The World Food Program said that the supply route from Chad to the Darfur region of Sudan, where hunger is worsening, is also at risk due to a lack of funding.
With more resources, WFP will be able to boost food stocks ahead of the rainy season when some refugees in Chad are cut off from supplies due to rising river levels. The Food Program is urgently
requesting $242 million to support its operations in the next six months.