Save the Children reported on Tuesday that during a conflict spanning four months between opposing military leaders in Sudan, starvation has tragically claimed the lives of a minimum of 498 children, with the possibility of hundreds more succumbing to the same fate.
On April 15, hostilities commenced between the army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) overseen by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project has reported that approximately 5,000 individuals have lost their lives, and over four million people have been displaced as a result of the ongoing conflict.
“At least 498 children in Sudan and likely hundreds more have died from hunger, including two dozen babies in a state orphanage,” Save the Children said in a statement.
Due to the commencement of the war, the British charity stated that it had no choice but to shut down 57 of its nutrition facilities. Presently, stocks are dwindling to a “critical low” level in the 108 facilities that are still operational.
“Never did we think we would see children dying from hunger in such numbers, but this is now the reality in Sudan,” said Save the Children’s Sudan country director, Arif Noor.
“Seriously ill children are arriving in the arms of desperate mothers and fathers at nutrition centres across the country and our staff have few options on how to treat them.”
“We are seeing children dying from entirely preventable hunger.”
In a statement issued last week, leaders of 20 international humanitarian organizations cautioned that over six million Sudanese individuals are precariously close to experiencing famine.
On Tuesday, the violence persisted primarily in Khartoum and Darfur, an expansive western region that accommodates a quarter of Sudan’s total population of 48 million.
The conflict in Darfur is centered around Nyala, Sudan’s second-largest city, where the United Nations reports that a minimum of 60 casualties, 250 injuries, and 50,000 displacements have occurred since August 11.
The army said its commander there had been killed on Monday.
Trucks transporting aid have faced obstacles in reaching Nyala, and the sole functioning hospital in the capital of South Darfur has communicated that it is inundated with wounded patients.