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.
