A child is assessed for malnutrition at a health facility in um Sagul camp in White Nile State, Sudan.
700,000 children in Sudan are facing the deadliest severe acute malnutrition after 300 days of war, UNICEF warned today.
James Elder, a spokesman for UNICEF, said Sudan has seen the world's largest child displacement, with 4 million children victimized, which equates to 13,000 children being forced to flee their homes every day for 300 days.
Earlier this week, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs launched a $2.7 billion appeal to address the most pressing needs in Sudan. But so far, only 4 per cent of the funds have been funded.
Since April last year, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a brutal conflict, with both sides refusing to heed calls for peace at the regional and international levels. During this period, humanitarian agencies have repeatedly warned about the scale and severity of the hunger and displacement crisis in Sudan.
Malnourished children need urgent support
On the same day, Elder briefed reporters in Geneva on his visit to the Darfur region of the Sudan last week. More than 700,000 children are at risk of severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form of malnutrition, he said.
He also pointed out that without better access and additional support, UNICEF could only provide treatment to up to 300,000 of these children. In this case, tens of thousands of children could die as a result.
Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, also warned against providing assistance to children under the age of five at risk too late. He stressed that once all obstacles to assistance were removed, there would be immediate positive results.
"These babies can recover very quickly," he said. If it is possible to provide them with therapeutic feeding, they can be pulled back from the brink of death in a matter of days and seen in the nutrition center again. ”
An entire generation hangs by a thread
In addition to millions of people displaced by conflict and life-threatening hunger, Sudanese people have also been subjected to killings, sexual violence and recruitment into armed groups, and that the number of these cases has increased by 500 per cent compared to a year ago, Elder said.
He stressed that this also showed that a large number of children were killed, raped or recruited, and that these figures were only the tip of the iceberg.
He insisted that this is a war to destroy health and nutrition systems, a war to break the laws of war, and a war to deprive families of their ability to support themselves and protect themselves, a war that is taking lives and destroying the future of a nation and an entire generation.
