Keystone-SDA
The number of children suffering from serious malnutrition in Darfur-Nord, a western state of Sudan in the grip of fighting, doubled compared to 2024, the UN agency for childhood (UNICEF) said on Friday. 40,000 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition.
(Keystone-ATS) Sudan has been the theater since April 2023 of a war between the army and the paramilitaries of the rapid support forces (FSR) which made tens of thousands of dead and moved more than 14 million people. The state of Darfour-Nord and its capital El-Facher, besieged by the FSR, were particularly affected by the fighting, with the famine declared last year in three displaced camps near the city.
“The children of the Darfur are hungry by the conflict and cut off from the help that could save them,” said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF representative in Sudan in a statement.
Humanitarian convoys attacked
In all of the five states of the vast region of Darfur, cases of severe acute malnutrition increased by 46% in the first five months of the year, compared to the same period in 2024. El-Facher is the only provincial capital in Darfour to still escape FSR control, despite a seat imposed since May 2024.
Hospitals have been affected by bombings, attacked humanitarian convoys and access to humanitarian aid is now almost completely blocked. The UN said this week that almost 40% of children under the age of five in El-Facher suffer from acute malnutrition, including 11% of severe acute malnutrition.
UNICEF has also pointed out significant increases in malnutrition in other areas recently affected by fighting. Severe acute malnutrition increased by more than 70% in the neighboring state of Kordofan-Nord, by 174% in the capital Khartoum and almost seven times in the state of Al-Jazira (center) in the first five months of the year, compared to the same period in 2024.
