Children at Risk of Dying in Famine-Hit Darfur as Medical Supplies Are Blocked, Aid Group Says

 Displaced Sudanese people sit at Zamzam camp, in North Darfur, Sudan, August 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Sudanese people sit at Zamzam camp, in North Darfur, Sudan, August 1, 2024. (Reuters)
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Children at Risk of Dying in Famine-Hit Darfur as Medical Supplies Are Blocked, Aid Group Says

 Displaced Sudanese people sit at Zamzam camp, in North Darfur, Sudan, August 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Sudanese people sit at Zamzam camp, in North Darfur, Sudan, August 1, 2024. (Reuters)

Malnourished children in a famine-hit camp for war-displaced people in Sudan’s western region of Darfur are at risk of dying, an aid group said Sunday, because it was forced to ration malnutrition treatment due to a blockade imposed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Doctors Without Borders said the RSF, which have besieged al-Fasher city as part of its war against the Sudanese military, have blocked three trucks carrying lifesaving medical supplies, including therapeutic food, for the city and the nearby Zamzam camp where famine was confirmed last week.

Sudan plunged into chaos in April last year when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF developed into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, before spreading across the northeastern African country. Darfur saw some of the worst and most devastating bouts of fighting in the war.

The conflict has killed thousands of people and pushed many into starvation. It created the world’s largest displacement crisis with more than 10 million people forced to flee their homes since April 2023, according to the UN migration agency. Over 2 million of those fled to neighboring countries.

International experts in the Famine Review Committee confirmed Thursday that starvation at Zamzam camp, where up to 600,000 people shelter, has grown into full famine.

International experts use set criteria to confirm the existence of famines. A famine is declared in an area when one in five people or households severely lack food and face starvation and destitution that would ultimately lead to critical levels of acute malnutrition and death.

In Zamzam camp, which has swelled with the arrival of new displaced people, many children are in critical condition, Doctors Without Borders said, adding that the malnutrition ward at its field hospital in the camp is overcrowded with a 126% bed occupancy rate.

The group said RSF fighters have blocked the trucks in the town of Kabkabiya for over a month, adding that it was forced to limit the number of children receiving therapeutic food in the overcrowded camp as its stock of medicine covers only two weeks.

“Deliberately obstructing or delaying humanitarian cargo is putting the lives of thousands of children at-risk as they are cut-off from receiving life-saving treatment,” it said on social media platform X.

There was no immediate comment from the RSF.

The RSF has imposed a siege on el-Fasher in its monthslong attempt to take it from the military and its allied rebel groups. The city, the provincial capital of North Darfur, is the last stronghold for the military in the war-torn Darfur region.



US Military Says it Killed Senior Al-Qaeda Leader in Syria

US soldiers walk while on patrol by the Suwaydiyah oil fields in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province on February 13, 2021. (AFP)
US soldiers walk while on patrol by the Suwaydiyah oil fields in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province on February 13, 2021. (AFP)
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US Military Says it Killed Senior Al-Qaeda Leader in Syria

US soldiers walk while on patrol by the Suwaydiyah oil fields in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province on February 13, 2021. (AFP)
US soldiers walk while on patrol by the Suwaydiyah oil fields in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province on February 13, 2021. (AFP)

US Central Command (CENTCOM) on Saturday said it had carried out a precision airstrike in Syria, targeting and killing a senior leader in an Al-Qaeda affiliate.

CENTCOM said it killed Muhammed Yusuf Ziya Talay, the senior military leader of Hurras al-Din (HaD), an Al-Qaeda affiliate, Reuters reported.

"As we have said in the past, we will continue to relentlessly pursue these terrorists in order to defend our homeland, and US, allied, and partner personnel in the region," said Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, CENTCOM commander.