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."



UNIFIL Demands Lebanon, Israel to Authorize New Surveillance Technologies

UNIFIL peacekeepers patrolling in south Lebanon (AFP) 
UNIFIL peacekeepers patrolling in south Lebanon (AFP) 
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UNIFIL Demands Lebanon, Israel to Authorize New Surveillance Technologies

UNIFIL peacekeepers patrolling in south Lebanon (AFP) 
UNIFIL peacekeepers patrolling in south Lebanon (AFP) 

UN Security Council members on Monday inquired about the request of UNIFIL to possess new technologies that would guarantee the mission’s freedom of movement and access throughout its area of operations along the Blue Line in the south of Lebanon.

In closed consultations held on Monday, the UN Council members received a briefing on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ latest report on the implementation of resolution 1701, which was circulated to Council members on 11 March.

The report urged prioritizing UNIFIL’s monitoring and verifying mechanisms, and enhancing tactical response in implementation of the resolution.

Adopted in 2006, Resolution 1701 called for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

At the session on Monday, Council members listened to briefings by Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix on developments in UNIFIL area of operations from south of the Litani River to the Blue Line in accordance with the Taif Accord and Security Council Resolutions 1559, 1701 and 1680.

The resolutions stipulate the disarmament of armed groups in Lebanon, including Hezbollah and the full control of territories by the Lebanese government.

 

In his 35-page report, the Secretary-General welcomed the “continued holding of the cessation of hostilities...despite challenges.”

The report registered progress towards the objective outlined in the cessation of hostilities arrangement of the withdrawal of the Israeli army south of the Blue Line and the deployment of the Lebanese armed forces.

It notes, however, that the “situation remains fragile” and that the Israeli army has “not yet completely withdrawn from Lebanese territory, remaining at five locations, and designating two areas as so called ‘buffer zones’ along the Blue Line.”

The Secretary-General also noted that the Lebanese Army has started to dismantle military infrastructure and confiscate weapons “believed to have belonged to Hezbollah south of the Litani River.”

Israel’s Withdrawal

In his report, Guterres urged parties to effectively implement their side of the cessation of hostilities arrangement and resolution 1701.

He notes that the Israeli army’s presence north of the Blue Line is a violation of Lebanese sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as of resolution 1701, and undermines the efforts of the Lebanese authorities to extend state authority throughout its territory.

The UN Chief also rejected the continued occupation of the northern part of the town of Ghajar and the adjacent area north of the Blue Line, condemning “all violations of Lebanese sovereignty.”

Aoun and Salam’s Efforts

Guterres welcomed recent political developments in Lebanon, such as the election of President Joseph Aoun on January 9, the designation on 13 January of Nawaf Salam as prime minister and the formation of the government on 8 February.

The Secretary-General spoke about the dramatic human impact and the utter level of destruction caused by the recent conflict in Lebanon, calling on donors to fully fund the 2025 Lebanon Response Plan and the Emergency Appeal.

Guterres expressed “optimism about Aoun’s pledge to take control of all arms outside state authority and fully implement the ceasefire deal with Israel.”

He called on the Lebanese Government to “facilitate the full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Agreement and resolutions 1559, 1701 and 1680.