Sudan Among Top 4 Countries with Highest Acute Malnutrition

A handout photograph, shot in January 2024, shows a woman and baby at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan. Photo: MSF/Mohamed Zakaria/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
A handout photograph, shot in January 2024, shows a woman and baby at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan. Photo: MSF/Mohamed Zakaria/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
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Sudan Among Top 4 Countries with Highest Acute Malnutrition

A handout photograph, shot in January 2024, shows a woman and baby at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan. Photo: MSF/Mohamed Zakaria/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
A handout photograph, shot in January 2024, shows a woman and baby at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan. Photo: MSF/Mohamed Zakaria/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

The UN on Tuesday painted a grim picture of Sudan's humanitarian situation, ranking the northeast African nation among the top four countries with the highest prevalence of acute malnutrition and with multiple diseases, threatening millions of people, including children under five years.

Meanwhile, the UN warned that the number of people displaced by the ongoing war and floods increased in Sudan, affecting hundreds of thousands, including in areas with people at risk of famine.

“Sudan is now among the top four countries in the world with the highest prevalence of global acute malnutrition (GAM),” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report.

Also, it said Sudan is currently grappling with multiple disease outbreaks including cholera, malaria, dengue fever, measles, and rubella.

“An estimated 3.4 million children under five years are at high risk of epidemic diseases,” the Office showed.

Due to the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), OCHA said an estimated 10.9 million people are now internally displaced, of whom about 8.1 million people have been internally displaced.

Also, a series of recent nutrition surveys carried out by the Nutrition Cluster across all 18 states indicate an alarming deterioration of the nutrition situation.

The UN office said Sudan is now among the top four countries in the world with the highest prevalence of global acute malnutrition (GAM), at an estimated 13.6%.

About 82% of the validated Standardized Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions (SMART) surveys reported GAM prevalence of 15% and above – higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) emergency threshold.

Meanwhile, the deteriorating nutritional status in Sudan puts children at even greater risk. Between 22 July and 29 September, over 17,600 cholera cases and 546 associated deaths—case fatality rate of 3.1%—were reported across 60 localities in 10 states, according to the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) and the WHO.



US Says Israel Must Improve Gaza's Humanitarian Situation or Risk Aid

 People attempt to extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli strike on tents sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
People attempt to extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli strike on tents sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
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US Says Israel Must Improve Gaza's Humanitarian Situation or Risk Aid

 People attempt to extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli strike on tents sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
People attempt to extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli strike on tents sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Israel must take urgent steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza to avoid legal action involving US military aid, according to news reports on Tuesday.

"We are writing now to underscore the US government's deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, and seek urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory," they wrote in an Oct. 13 letter to their Israeli counterparts, posted by an Axios reporter on X, according to Reuters.

The State Department and Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Israel's government also could not be immediately reached for comment.

The report comes as Israeli forces expand operations into northern Gaza amid ongoing concerns about access to humanitarian aid throughout the enclave and civilians' access to food, water and medicine.

US officials earlier this year said Israel may have violated international humanitarian law using US-supplied weapons during its military operation in Gaza.

This week's letter cited Section 620i of the Foreign Assistance Act, which restricts (prohibits) military aid to countries that impede delivery of US humanitarian assistance.

It also cited a National Security Memorandum that US President Joe Biden issued in February that requires the State Department to report to Congress on whether it finds credible Israel's assurances that its use of US weapons does not violate US or international law.