Thirteen children died last month from the consequences of malnutrition in the Lagawa camp for displaced persons in the Darfur region of Sudan, where the civil war has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, a group of doctors said yesterday.
The Sudanese Doctors’ Network stated in a release that there is a severe shortage of food in the Lagawa camp, where there are more than 7.000 displaced persons, mostly women and children.
The deaths of the children in Lagawa are the latest tragedy in Sudan, which has been in chaos since April 2023 due to fighting between the Sudanese army and the renegade paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
UNICEF said this month that more than 40.000 children are being treated for severe acute malnutrition in that province, which is double the number compared to the same period last year.
The civil war has destroyed Sudan’s health system, creating fertile ground for disease and affecting millions of people. There are epidemics of cholera, measles, and malaria.
Thousands of people have been killed in the war, and about 13 million have been displaced, of whom four million have gone to neighboring countries.
During the war, there have been mass rape and ethnically motivated killings considered war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in Darfur.
