Forced to reduce number of malnourished children receiving treatment at Sudanese camp: Aid group

Khartoum: An aid group announced that it has been forced to reduce the number of malnourished children receiving treatment at one of the largest camps for the displaced in western Sudan’s Darfur region due to blockage of medical supplies imposed by the paramilitary group.

“There is only enough therapeutic food to treat malnourished children in the Zamzam camp for another two weeks. As a result, today, we have sadly been obliged to cap the number of children who can receive this treatment because the RSF (Rapid Support Forces) have blocked our supply trucks,” Doctors Without Borders said in a statement on Sunday.

“Our three trucks bringing life-saving medical supplies — including therapeutic food to Zamzam and El Fasher have been blocked in the town of Kabkabiya for over a month by the RSF,” it said.

According to the group, children with severe malnutrition without treatment are at risk of dying within 3-6 weeks, reports Xinhua news agency.

“In our field hospital in Zamzam, the bed occupancy rate of our malnutrition ward is at 126 per cent, indicating that many children are already in a critical condition,” it said, urging all warring parties to allow humanitarian aid to move across borders into Sudan and across front lines.

On Thursday, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, an analysis agency monitoring food security worldwide, announced in an alert that famine was ongoing in the Zamzam camp.

Meanwhile, the United Nations said famine was prevalent in some areas of war-torn Sudan and would continue through the next two months.

The country’s two warring parties, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF have traded accusations over the responsibility for the famine.

Since May 10, fierce clashes have been raging in El Fasher, the capital city of Sudan’s North Darfur State.

The World Food Program has previously warned that the ongoing war in Sudan between the SAF and the RSF “risks triggering the world’s largest hunger crisis.”

Sudan has been witnessing a deadly conflict between the SAF and the RSF since April 15, 2023, resulting in the loss of at least 16,650 lives. An estimated 10.7 million people are now internally displaced in Sudan, with approximately 2.2 million others seeking refuge in neighbouring countries, according to the UN data released on Monday.

–IANS