United Nations: The world must stop turning a blind eye to Sudanese children

Ricardo Pires spoke about the situation in parts of North Darfur, where more than half of the children suffer from acute malnutrition, adding: “This was not just predictions or models, but an established fact.”.

At the bi-weekly press conference of the United Nations agencies in Geneva, he referred to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification data issued last Friday from three regions in North Darfur, namely Um Baru, Karnoy and Al-Tineh, which showed catastrophic rates of malnutrition.

Peres warned that extreme hunger and malnutrition strike children first, as they are the youngest and most vulnerable, noting that “These are children between six months and five years old, and time is running out for them.”.

“death sentence”

The UNICEF spokesperson said that these children are not only suffering from hunger, adding that nearly half of the children in Al-Tineh district have fallen ill in the past two weeks.

Peres explained that “Fever, diarrhoea, respiratory infections, low vaccination rates, water pollution and the collapse of the health system are all factors that turn treatable diseases into death sentences for children who are already malnourished.”.

The UN official said: “The world must stop turning a blind eye to Sudan’s children. More than half of Um Baru’s children are withering before our eyes.”.

He recalled that 33.7 million people across Sudan today need humanitarian assistance, half of whom are children, adding that 825,000 children are expected to suffer from severe wasting this year, and 70% of health facilities are out of order.

An exhausted health system

In turn, Dr. Shibl Sahbani, the representative of the World Health Organization in Sudan, spoke about the situation in the country, explaining that the newly displaced, including the returnees, need urgent health interventions, “This is what the exhausted health system cannot provide.”.

He pointed out that the health system was severely damaged by the attacks, with the loss and damage of equipment and supplies, and the lack of health personnel and operational funding.

He described the attacks on health care as… “It deprives communities of health care for years to come, terrorizes patients and health workers, and creates insurmountable obstacles to life-saving treatment.”.

He recalled that Sudan is facing an outbreak of many diseases, including cholera, malaria, dengue fever and measles, in addition to malnutrition and serious health conditions.

Extreme concern

Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN Human Rights Office, reiterated the Office’s grave concern about the involvement of many different countries in Sudan, whether they were directly involved, whether there were mercenaries on the ground from different countries, whether they were providing weapons, intelligence, financing or other support, or whether they were implicated in the political economy of the conflict in Sudan.

She reiterated the call of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to all countries with influence to exercise this influence to end the conflict in Sudan.