More than 1,200 children have died due to suspected measles and malnutrition in refugee camps in Sudan, according to two United Nations agencies on Tuesday. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and UNICEF reported that several thousand others, including newborns, are at risk of dying before the end of the year.
The agencies stated that nearly six months after the conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces began, the healthcare sector in the country is on the brink of collapse due to direct attacks from both warring parties, as well as a shortage of personnel and medicine.
Alan Maina, the head of the Public Health Sector at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a press briefing for the organization in Geneva, "More than 1,200 children under the age of five have died in White Nile State since May, and unfortunately, we fear that the numbers will continue to rise."
For its part, UNICEF expressed concern about the potential deaths of "several thousand newborns" among the 333,000 expected to be born by the end of the year. UNICEF spokesperson James Elder stated in the same briefing that "these children and their mothers need skilled care during childbirth. But in a country where millions are either besieged in war zones or displaced, and where there is a significant shortage of medical supplies, the likelihood of receiving such care decreases day by day."
He added that about 55,000 children need treatment for the worst forms of malnutrition in Sudan each month, but fewer than one in 50 nutrition centers are operational in the capital Khartoum, and one in ten in West Darfur.
