About three in every four children in Sudan are now facing catastrophic levels of hunger which could deteriorate further if immediate action is not taken.
Development Diaries reports that the number of children in Sudan facing severe food shortages has almost doubled in six months with about 75 percent of children now going hungry daily according to Save the Children.
We understand that 16.4 million children now face crisis or emergency levels of hunger – up from 8.3 million last December.
Rising displacement and severe restrictions on humanitarian access amidst the 14 months of devastating conflict in the country are exacerbating the crisis in what is now one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.
There is a risk of famine in 14 locations across the country, with 755,000 people facing catastrophic levels of hunger, 355,605 of them estimated to be children.
‘These new figures should make our blood run cold. Fourteen months of devastating conflict have turned Sudan’s breadbasket into battlefields’, Save the Children Country Director in Sudan, Dr Arif Noor, said in a statement.
‘Hundreds of thousands of children who have managed to dodge bullets and bombs are now facing death by starvation and disease.
‘Where is the collective outrage – and action – needed to tackle this travesty? It is already too late to prevent mass hunger and malnutrition. But through immediate, coordinated action, we can save lives – and history will judge us if we do not.’
The lack of adequate food can lead to malnutrition which, without treatment, can have long-term implications on children’s health and development, and death.
Development Diaries calls on the warring parties in Sudan to allow humanitarian organisations unimpeded access to civilians as it will help arrest the worsening hunger situation in the country.
We also urge parties to the conflict to resolve their differences and come to peaceful terms for the betterment of the people and development of the country.
Source: Save the Children
Photo source: United Nations
