Hunger Still Blights the Lives of Sudan's Children

File photo: South Sudanese refugees. Reuters file photo
File photo: South Sudanese refugees. Reuters file photo
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Hunger Still Blights the Lives of Sudan's Children

File photo: South Sudanese refugees. Reuters file photo
File photo: South Sudanese refugees. Reuters file photo

In Sudan's sprawling Kalma camp for the displaced, Ansaf Omar lives with the gut-wrenching guilt of losing her toddler to a food crisis that has hit millions of people nationwide.

"I am severely malnourished so I couldn't breastfeed him," said Omar, 34, a month after her one-and-half-year-old child died in Kalma camp just outside Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur state, AFP said.

"I took him everywhere -- hospitals, treatment centers, but he died in the end," she said.

Desperate mothers like Omar battle daily around Kalma to feed their frail and hungry children, many of whom are severely malnourished.

Sudan is one of the world's poorest countries, with one-third of the population -- at least 15 million people -- facing a growing hunger crisis, according to United Nations figures.

Nearly three million of Sudan's children under the age of five are acutely malnourished, the UN says.

"Over 100,000 children in Sudan are at risk of dying of malnutrition if left untreated," said Leni Kinzli, head of communications in the country for the World Food Program (WFP).

Nationwide, one-third of children under five are "too short for their age", and nearly half of Sudan's 189 localities have a "stunting prevalence more significant than 40 percent", according to the Alight aid group.

It said that at least 63 children were reported to have died from causes related to malnutrition at Alight facilities in and around Kalma in 2022.

Sudan grappled with chronic hardships under the regime of Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in 2019. His three-decade rule was marked by internal conflicts, government mismanagement and punishing international sanctions.

- Bouts of violence -
The restive Darfur region was the scene of a bitter civil war that broke out in 2003, pitting ethnic African minority rebels against Bashir's government in Khartoum.

Economic troubles deepened following the Covid-19 pandemic and a 2021 military coup which derailed a post-Bashir transition and triggered cuts to crucial international aid.

Some 65 percent of Sudan's people live under the poverty line, according to a 2020 UN report.

Food insecurity is not new to the residents of Kalma, Darfur's largest camp and home to some 120,000 people displaced since the 2003 conflict erupted in the country's arid western region.

But residents say conditions have worsened as economic hardships kept rising and sporadic bouts of deadly violence continued.

Alight's nutrition centers in Kalma saw a "dramatic increase on admissions to and demand on its emergency nutrition services" in 2022, according to the group's country director, Heidi Diedrich.

"Kalma stabilization center newly admitted 863 children in 2022, an increase of 71 percent from 2021," according to Alight.

"The number of deaths at the stabilization center increased by 231 percent in 2022, all children aged six months and above."

Outside one nutrition center in Kalma, 38-year-old Hawa Suleiman cradled her sleeping infant, hoping to find food for the child.

"We have nothing at home. We sometimes go to sleep hungry," she said.

- Lack of funding -
In recent years the WFP has halved food rations for internally displaced people in Kalma "due to funding constraints", said Kinzli.

The lack of funding -- in part due to global economic decline following Covid-19 and the Ukraine crisis -- coupled with rising humanitarian needs puts the WFP in "an impossible situation where we have to choose who receives support and who does not –- it's heartbreaking".

The UN has reported a 35 percent deficiency in the production of sorghum -- a staple food in Sudan -- during the 2021-2022 harvest season.

Nouralsham Ibrahim, 30, says she could no longer rely on aid to feed her five children.

"We try to make some money working the fields outside the camp, but it barely covers one day," she said.

"Even the bread is too expensive."

For others like Omar, venturing out of the camp in the troubled Darfur region, where ethnic violence still breaks out sporadically, is risky and rarely worth it.

"We are not left in peace when we get out to work," said the woman who makes just 500 Sudanese pounds ($0.85) a day when she works in the fields.

"Women and girls get raped... and men get killed."

The Darfur conflict -- which left 300,000 people killed and 2.5 million displaced -- may have largely subsided but ethnic violence can still break out over access to water, land or cattle.

In 2022, clashes killed nearly 1,000 people in the country, including in the Darfur region, according to the UN.

"We are very tired," said Ibrahim. "We scramble here and there to get food but we need help."



US Will Keep Hitting Houthis until Shipping Attacks Stop, Hegseth Says

This grab from footage shared by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) on March 15, 2025 shows a US Air Force F/A-18 fighter aircraft taking off from an aircraft carrier at sea reportedly amidst operations launched against Houthis in Yemen. (DVIDS / AFP)
This grab from footage shared by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) on March 15, 2025 shows a US Air Force F/A-18 fighter aircraft taking off from an aircraft carrier at sea reportedly amidst operations launched against Houthis in Yemen. (DVIDS / AFP)
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US Will Keep Hitting Houthis until Shipping Attacks Stop, Hegseth Says

This grab from footage shared by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) on March 15, 2025 shows a US Air Force F/A-18 fighter aircraft taking off from an aircraft carrier at sea reportedly amidst operations launched against Houthis in Yemen. (DVIDS / AFP)
This grab from footage shared by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) on March 15, 2025 shows a US Air Force F/A-18 fighter aircraft taking off from an aircraft carrier at sea reportedly amidst operations launched against Houthis in Yemen. (DVIDS / AFP)

The United States will keep attacking Yemen's Houthi until they end attacks on shipping, the US defense secretary said on Sunday, as the Iran-aligned militias signaled they could escalate in response to deadly US strikes the day before.

The airstrikes, which killed at least 31 people, are the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January. One US official told Reuters the campaign might continue for weeks.

The Houthi political bureau described the attacks as a "war crime" and said Houthi forces were ready to "meet escalation with escalation", while Moscow urged Washington to cease the strikes.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News: "The minute the Houthis say we'll stop shooting at your ships, we'll stop shooting at your drones, this campaign will end, but until then it will be unrelenting."

"This is about stopping the shooting at assets ... in that critical waterway, to reopen freedom of navigation, which is a core national interest of the United States, and Iran has been enabling the Houthis for far too long," he said. "They better back off."

The Houthis, who have taken control of several regions of Yemen over the past decade, said last week they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea if Israel did not lift a block on aid entering Gaza.

They had launched scores of attacks on shipping after Israel's war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza's Palestinians.

Trump also told Iran, the Houthis' main backer, to stop supporting the militias immediately. He said if Iran threatened the United States, "America will hold you fully accountable and, we won't be nice about it!"

IRAN WARNS US NOT TO ESCALATE

In response, Hossein Salami, the top commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, said the Houthis took their own decisions.

"We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they carry out their threats," he told state media.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS News' "Face the Nation" program: "There's no way the ... Houthis would have the ability to do this kind of thing unless they had support from Iran. And so this was a message to Iran: don't keep supporting them, because then you will also be responsible for what they are doing in attacking Navy ships and attacking global shipping."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Rubio to urge an "immediate cessation of the use of force and the importance for all sides to engage in political dialogue", Moscow said.

Trump has been pressing Russia to sign a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in its war with Ukraine, which Kyiv accepted last week, but Moscow has said needs to be reworked.

Trump is also increasing sanctions pressure, and hoping to enlist Russian help, to try to bring Tehran to the negotiating table over its nuclear program.

Most of the 31 people confirmed killed in the US strikes were women and children, said Anees al-Asbahi, spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry. More than 100 were injured.

Residents in Sanaa said the strikes hit a neighborhood known to host several members of the Houthi leadership.

"The explosions were violent and shook the neighborhood like an earthquake. They terrified our women and children," said one of the residents, who gave his name as Abdullah Yahia.

In Sanaa, a crane and bulldozer were used to remove debris at one site and people used their bare hands to pick through the rubble. At a hospital, medics treated the injured, including children, and the bodies of several casualties were placed in a yard, wrapped in plastic sheets, Reuters footage showed.

Strikes also targeted Houthi military sites in the city of Taiz, two witnesses said on Sunday.

HOUTHIS' RED SEA ATTACKS DISRUPT GLOBAL TRADE ROUTE

Another strike, on a power station in the town of Dahyan, led to a power cut, Al-Masirah TV reported early on Sunday. Dahyan is where Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the Houthis, often meets visitors.

The Houthi attacks on shipping have disrupted global commerce and set the US military off on a costly campaign to intercept missiles and drones.

The militants suspended their campaign when Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza in January.

But on March 12, the Houthis said their threat to attack Israeli ships would remain in effect until Israel reapproved the delivery of aid and food into Gaza.

Joe Biden's previous US administration had also sought to degrade the Houthis' strike power. But US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump had authorized a more aggressive approach.

The US military's Central Command described Saturday's strikes as the start of a large-scale operation across Yemen.

The strikes were carried out in part by fighter aircraft from the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea, officials said.

Iran condemned the strikes as a "gross violation" of the UN Charter and international law.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the US government had "no authority, or business, dictating Iranian foreign policy".