The U.N. children’s agency has donated some 1,800 cartons of children’s food supplements to Nyala Hospital with an aim of reducing acute malnutrition, officials at the South Darfur State Ministry of Health have said.
This is the first therapeutic food for children to reach South Darfur State since the beginning of the war in Sudan in mid-April last year.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Monday, Hafiz Mohammed Nur, who heads the department of Emergency Health at the state Ministry of Health said there has been an increase in cases of malnutrition among children in Nyala.
He said the situation was compounded by the theft of a stock of therapeutic food at the start of the current conflict in the country.
Nur estimates the looted quantity at 13 thousand cartons, including the fall emergency stock of therapeutic food.
He added that the latest quantities received would save the situation adding that the state Nutrition Department had developed a plan to distribute therapeutic food to the centers affiliated to the ministry.
Nur said nutrition centers affiliated to organizations operating in the camps and localities will also be included in the distribution plan.
At least 700,000 children in Sudan are likely to suffer from the worst form of malnutrition this year, and tens of thousands could die, the United Nations children’s agency warned earlier this month.
A 10-month war in Sudan between its armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has devastated the country’s infrastructure, prompted warnings of famine and displaced millions of people inside and outside the country.