The UN issued a global warning after More than 1,200 children under five died of measles and malnutrition in refugee camps in Sudan from May to date. The African country has been hit since April by a conflict between armies and paramilitaries. From UNICEF warned that tens of thousands of children will be “on the brink of death” before the end of the year and the Refugee Agency called for a global campaign.
“Due to callous disregard for civilians and relentless attacks on health and nutrition services, UNICEF fears that many thousands of newborns will die between now and the end of the year,” said the report published by the agency. United Nations Organization in charge of childhood.
Meanwhile, teams from the agency UN for refugees, UNHCR, assured that more than 1,200 children refugees children under five years of age died in nine fields in the period between May 15 and September 14, reported the AFP news agency.
They were refugee children from Ethiopia and South Sudan, the person in charge of Public health of the entity, Allen Maina.
The United Nations Children’s Fund document projects that About 333,000 children are expected to be born in this African country between October and December. “They and their mothers need skilled birth care. However, in a country where millions of people are trapped in war zones or displaced, and where there are severe shortages of medical supplies, such care is becoming less likely every day,” it continues. the text.
Likewise, he warns that “nutrition services are equally devastated: every month, 55,000 children need treatment for the deadliest form of malnutrition.”
However, in Khartoum, the country’s capital and one of the cities most devastated by the war, “less than one in 50 nutrition centers is operational”, while in Western Danfur – another of the main theaters of the conflict – ” It’s one in ten.”
Conflict in Sudan
The conflict in Sudan broke out on April 15 with clashes between the Army, led by General Abdel Fatah al-Burhan, and the FAR, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, due to their differences over the constitution of the future Armed Forces.
The start of the war implied the collapse of already paralyzed negotiations that sought a political transition agreement towards a civilian government in the country, plunged into a spiral of chaos since the overthrow in 2019 of Omar al Bashir, who ruled the country with a fist. of iron for 30 years.
At least 7,500 people died, according to the UN, in a war that also unleashed new intercommunal conflicts in the western Sudanese region of Darfur and encouraged a humanitarian crisis. In addition, more than 4.5 million people were forced to leave their homes.
In this context, “official figures place a total of 435 minors dead as victims of hunger, with diseases such as measles, malaria, dengue or diarrhea as potential threats,” James Elder, spokesperson for Unicef, told reporters in Geneva.
With the life-saving services on which children depend completely devastated, the UN children’s agency fears that Sudan’s youngest citizens are entering a period of unprecedented mortality.
“The longer the conflict continues and low levels of funding persist, the more devastating the impact will be. This is the cost of inaction,” Elder added. “We need funds,” warned the spokesperson for the UN agency.
“As of this month, UNICEF’s $838 million appeal to reach nearly 10 million children is less than a quarter funded. Such a funding shortfall will mean loss of life,” Elder lamented.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, launched the global campaign hope from home (Hope far from home) to urge world leaders “to uphold their moral and legal obligations to help ensure that people seeking asylum can do so without discrimination.”
More than 110 million people were forced to leave their homes due to the worsening of war, social and economic conflicts. About 40% are girls and boys.
76% of displaced people receive support from low- or middle-income countries. And the countries with the least income granted asylum to 20% of the total. The vast majority (70%) are countries neighboring the conflicts. From the UNHCR Argentina Foundation They called on all Argentinians to join the campaign by signing a petition that will be presented at the end of the year in Geneva, headquarters of the 2° the World Refugee Forum.
Source: Ambito
