Latest news with #SudanDoctorsNetwork
Daily News Egypt
3 days ago
- Health
- Daily News Egypt
At least 239 children die from malnutrition in western Sudan, medical group says
At least 239 children have died from severe malnutrition in Sudan's North Darfur province over the past six months, as ongoing conflict and a worsening humanitarian crisis restrict access to food and medical supplies, a Sudanese medical organization said on Monday. The Sudan Doctors Network, a civilian-run medical group, said in a statement that the deaths occurred in and around El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, which has been under siege for more than a year amid heavy fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The group cited a combination of food shortages, rising prices, medicine scarcity, and attacks on nutrition centers as key drivers of the child mortality crisis. 'Immediate action is needed to open humanitarian corridors, allow the delivery of emergency aid and medical supplies, and lift the siege that has gripped El Fasher for over a year,' the statement said, calling on the international community to pressure the RSF to accept a ceasefire. The United Nations has proposed a one-week humanitarian truce to facilitate aid deliveries to civilians trapped by the fighting. The Sudanese Armed Forces have agreed to the proposal, according to official statements, but the RSF has not yet publicly responded. The ongoing war between the army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has plunged Sudan into a protracted humanitarian emergency, with millions displaced and widespread shortages of food, clean water, and medical care across several regions, particularly in Darfur. Human rights organizations have repeatedly warned that children are among the most vulnerable populations, with aid groups often unable to reach conflict zones due to insecurity and administrative barriers. The United Nations and several humanitarian agencies have called for unimpeded access to affected areas, warning that the situation in Sudan could escalate into one of the world's worst food crises if left unaddressed.
Associated Press
5 days ago
- General
- Associated Press
Sudanese fleeing war are at risk of worsening hunger in neighboring nations, UN warns
CAIRO (AP) — Millions of people fleeing the conflict in Sudan risk falling deeper into hunger as they seek refuge in countries already grappling with food insecurity, the United Nations warned. The World Food Program, the U.N.'s food agency, said Monday that over four million Sudanese refugees in neighboring countries are at risk of suffering further food insecurities as crucial funding for life-saving food assistance is expected to dwindle in the coming months in the Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Uganda and Chad. About 40,000 people have been killed and nearly 13 million displaced, including to other countries, by Sudan's civil war that began in April 2023, according to estimates from U.N. agencies. Nearly half of the population remaining in Sudan is facing acute food insecurity, with some areas of the country suffering from malnutrition, which has killed 239 children in the past six months in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province, the Sudan Doctors Network said. The group said the children died as a result of severe shortages of food and medicine, and the bombing of nutrition warehouses in the Sudanese province between January and June. Sudan plunged into war in April 2023 when simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and its paramilitary rival, the Rapid Support Forces, escalated to fighting in the capital of Khartoum and spread across the country. But those fleeing the conflict continue to suffer from malnutrition even beyond Sudan's borders. 'Refugees from Sudan are fleeing for their lives and yet are being met with more hunger, despair, and limited resources on the other side of the border,' said Shaun Hughes, WFP's Emergency Coordinator for the Sudan Regional Crisis. 'Food assistance is a lifeline for vulnerable refugee families with nowhere else to turn.' Food insecurity and famine conditions have spread across Sudan. The Darfur Victims Support Organization on Tuesday posted pictures on Facebook showing scores of citizens lining up to receive a meal from a charity kitchen. The group appealed to international organizations to take notice of the humanitarian situation in the city and called on armed groups to declare a truce and open corridors to deliver much needed civilian aid. The southern part of El Fasher saw renewed clashes between the army and the RSF Monday morning despite the U.N. calling for a week-long ceasefire in the city for aid distribution, which the Sudanese army accepted, the Darfur-based group said. The El Fasher Resistance Committee said Sunday that heavy artillery shelling targeted several residential areas and the livestock market for the third day in a row, killing and injuring civilians amid a deteriorating humanitarian situation in the area. The Trump administration's cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development have also had an impact, with programs being defunded. In Sudan, 90 communal kitchens closed in Khartoum, leaving more than half a million people without consistent access to food, according to the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid organization.
The Independent
5 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Sudanese fleeing war are at risk of worsening hunger in neighboring nations, UN warns
Millions of people fleeing the conflict in Sudan risk falling deeper into hunger as they seek refuge in countries already grappling with food insecurity, the United Nations warned. The World Food Program, the U.N.'s food agency, said Monday that over four million Sudanese refugees in neighboring countries are at risk of suffering further food insecurities as crucial funding for life-saving food assistance is expected to dwindle in the coming months in the Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Uganda and Chad. About 40,000 people have been killed and nearly 13 million displaced, including to other countries, by Sudan's civil war that began in April 2023, according to estimates from U.N. agencies. Nearly half of the population remaining in Sudan is facing acute food insecurity, with some areas of the country suffering from malnutrition, which has killed 239 children in the past six months in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province, the Sudan Doctors Network said. The group said the children died as a result of severe shortages of food and medicine, and the bombing of nutrition warehouses in the Sudanese province between January and June. Sudan plunged into war in April 2023 when simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and its paramilitary rival, the Rapid Support Forces, escalated to fighting in the capital of Khartoum and spread across the country. But those fleeing the conflict continue to suffer from malnutrition even beyond Sudan's borders. ' Refugees from Sudan are fleeing for their lives and yet are being met with more hunger, despair, and limited resources on the other side of the border,' said Shaun Hughes, WFP's Emergency Coordinator for the Sudan Regional Crisis. 'Food assistance is a lifeline for vulnerable refugee families with nowhere else to turn.' Food insecurity and famine conditions have spread across Sudan. The Darfur Victims Support Organization on Tuesday posted pictures on Facebook showing scores of citizens lining up to receive a meal from a charity kitchen. The group appealed to international organizations to take notice of the humanitarian situation in the city and called on armed groups to declare a truce and open corridors to deliver much needed civilian aid. The southern part of El Fasher saw renewed clashes between the army and the RSF Monday morning despite the U.N. calling for a week-long ceasefire in the city for aid distribution, which the Sudanese army accepted, the Darfur-based group said. The El Fasher Resistance Committee said Sunday that heavy artillery shelling targeted several residential areas and the livestock market for the third day in a row, killing and injuring civilians amid a deteriorating humanitarian situation in the area. The Trump administration's cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development have also had an impact, with programs being defunded. In Sudan, 90 communal kitchens closed in Khartoum, leaving more than half a million people without consistent access to food, according to the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid organization.
New York Times
02-05-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Paramilitary Fighters Massacre More Than 100 Civilians, Doctors' Group Says
Paramilitary forces killed more than 100 civilians in an attack on a city in southern Sudan on Thursday, according to an association of doctors, in the latest large-scale accusation of an atrocity of the country's civil war. The paramilitary fighters, called the Rapid Support Forces, said on Thursday that they had attacked the city of Nahud, which had been held by the Sudanese military along a highway connecting territory it holds with Darfur — a western region that has become a stronghold for the Rapid Support Forces. At least 542 civilians have been killed in the region in just three weeks, the U.N. human rights chief, Volker Türk, said on Thursday, adding that the real toll is likely much higher. 'The horror unfolding in Sudan knows no bounds,' he said in a statement about the war. 'My fears are all the greater given the ominous warning by the R.S.F. of 'bloodshed' ahead of imminent battles.' The Sudanese military drove Rapid Support Forces fighters out of Khartoum, the country's capital, in March, but since then the paramilitary group has declared its own government in the areas that it controls, and pressed a major offensive to seize all of Darfur. The doctors' group, the Sudan Doctors Network, said that Rapid Support Forces fighters had carried out a 'large-scale massacre' in Nahud on Thursday night, with 21 children and 15 women among the dead. The group said that the troops had also looted a medical supply warehouse, markets, pharmacies and a hospital. The assault 'stripped the city of its last means of health care and halted medical services for many patients and injured individuals who rely on them,' the group said on social media. The toll did not include military personnel, and was likely to rise, the group added. The Sudan War Monitor, a group of journalists and researchers who track the civil war, now it its third year, said that the Sudanese military had lost the city on Thursday, leaving it without a key hub to push into Rapid Support Forces territory in Darfur. A Sudanese military spokesman, Nabil Abdallah, denied that Nahud had fallen to the Rapid Support Forces and said the military still controlled the city, according to the war monitor. Thursday's attack came as the Rapid Support Forces pressed its long siege on El Fasher, the last major city in Darfur that the it does not control, and as the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces face new accusations of atrocities. Last month, aid groups and the United Nations said that Rapid Support Forces fighters killed the entire staff of a medical clinic in a famine-stricken camp in Darfur, killing hundreds and forcing as many as 400,000 others to flee the camp. Despite the Rapid Support Forces withdrawal from the capital and the urging of officials like Mr. Türk, of the U.N., and others, many diplomats and aid workers believe that the war's end is far from sight. The war began as an alliance between the military and the Rapid Support Forces crumbled in 2023. The paramilitary group's declaration of a parallel government, in the western and southern regions it controls, has raised fears of a long-term partition of the vast African nation along the lines of the disastrous split in Libya since 2011.
