UN children’s fund UNICEF has said that an estimated 3.2 million Sudanese children under the age of five are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year.
The Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Stéphane Dujarric, raised the alarm in a Friday briefing on the devastating humanitarian crisis; he said they were desperate to keep in the headlines.
Dujarric said that over 700,000 of the affected children were likely to suffer from severe acute malnutrition.
“Sudan, as you know, has the world’s largest child displacement crisis, with five million children displaced because of the hostilities.
“Most of these children leave with their families with only the clothes on their bodies. Mothers often walk for days, sometimes up to 20 days, to reach a camp, looking for safety, looking for food and just looking for basic shelter,” Dujarric explained in his statement circulated online.
He regretted that the families and communities trapped in the middle of the Sudan conflict and in hard-to-reach, areas were continuing to bear the brunt of the violence and the suffering and as the conflict rages on.
“The lack of access to sufficient food and basic services in these hard-to-reach areas inside Sudan is likely to swell and the risk of destitution and death increases.”
The Spokesperson said UNICEF, in collaboration with humanitarian partners, would continue to deliver safe and clean water and integrated health and nutrition services, including immunization, treatment of childhood illnesses.
He also highlighted the famine conditions currently present in Zamzam, Al Salam, and Abu Shouk camps for internally displaced people, as well as the western Nuba Mountains of Sudan.
“The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) committee has projected that famine could spread to five additional regions of Sudan, including El Fasher, by the middle of this year, with 17 other areas at risk unless urgent intervention is managed,” he explained.
Dujarric urged governments to prioritize funding, ensure safe relief routes, and press all parties involved to just stop fighting.