Sudan: People facing extreme malnutrition in Sudan’s protracted crisis
As starving people continue to flee atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in El Fasher, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are providing critical care to people who have reached the town of Tawila. Here, MSF is witnessing extreme levels of acute malnutrition, in what is now the most severe example of a malnutrition crisis that has gripped Sudan since the start of the war.
For months MSF teams in Tawila have been treating malnutrition among patients who fled El Fasher, but malnutrition rates are now staggering. Among children under the age of five who reached Tawila between Oct. 27 – right after the RSF seized control of El Fasher – and Nov. 3, over 70% were acutely malnourished, with 35% suffering from severe acute malnutrition. At the same time, 60% of the 1,130 adults MSF screened were acutely malnourished, 37% of whom were severely acutely malnourished. Malnutrition rates are even higher among pregnant and breastfeeding women.
MSF’s findings corroborate fears that famine had devastated people in El Fasher, which was besieged for more than 500 days. They also correspond with the recently released Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report that found famine in El Fasher and in Kadugli.
Escalating food scarcity and blocked aid leave civilians with few options to survive
Survivors arriving in Tawila have described to MSF teams how life had become unbearable in El Fasher. People report having had no access to food, with community kitchens shut down, humanitarian aid blocked and markets were shelled and depleted. In September, seven kilograms of millet cost 500,000 Sudanese pounds ($1,166 Canadian) and one kilogram of sugar 130,000 Sudanese pounds ($303 Canadian). In desperation, people have been left with no choice but to turn animal feed into human food.
“My cousin disappeared in June while trying for the first time to bring food and since then we have had no news. At the exit of El Fasher, they faced RSF fighters on motorcycles who shot at them.”
A woman who fled l Fasher in October
“We were so hungry we began eating ambaz [animal feed],” says a displaced woman in North Darfur. “At first it was free, then we had to buy it for 20,000 Sudanese pounds per 1.5 kilograms ($46 Canadian), rising to 50,000 Sudanese pounds ($116 Canadian) in June.”
Further, the RSF has shot people trying to bring food into El Fasher. Dozens of survivors managed to make it to Tawila, where they were treated by MSF.
“My cousin disappeared in June while trying for the first time to bring food and since then we have had no news,” says a woman who fled the city in October. “At the exit of El Fasher, they faced RSF fighters on motorcycles who shot at them.”
MSF fears that many people in and around El Fasher remain stranded, held for ransom and unable to escape. The RSF and its allies must halt mass atrocities and provide safe passage for the survivors to flee.
“Right across Sudan there is more that can be done to reduce the suffering caused by malnutrition. We call on all warring parties to allow humanitarian organizations safe and unimpeded access to increase services and help reduce this crisis.”
Myriam Laaroussi, MSF emergency coordinator
People’s struggles are far from over once they reach Tawila. Since the start of the year, half of the 6,500 pregnant women MSF has seen for prenatal care were acutely malnourished, including 15 per cent with severe malnutrition and 35 per cent with moderate malnutrition. This puts their children at serious risk of being born underweight or malnourished.
Beyond El Fasher, MSF teams across Sudan have seen a widespread deterioration in children’s nutritional status in recent months. The crisis is being fuelled by overlapping factors, including inadequate food, disease, insecurity, lack of livelihoods and unsafe living conditions.
“Right across Sudan there is more that can be done to reduce the suffering caused by malnutrition,” says Myriam Laaroussi, MSF emergency coordinator. “We call on all warring parties to allow humanitarian organizations safe and unimpeded access to increase services and help reduce this crisis.”
Displacement and conflict fuel a nationwide deterioration in nutritional health
Displacement – either for people moving within Sudan or from other countries – also plays a significant role in driving malnutrition. In Blue Nile state, eastern Sudan, the arrival of Sudanese returnees from South Sudan since June has pushed fragile resources to their limits. Thousands of families live in makeshift camps with little access to clean water, food or hygiene services, leading to an ongoing outbreak of cholera and a surge of preventable deaths among children. Between July and September, MSF treated 1,950 severely malnourished children at the Damazin teaching hospital. One hundred of these children died, many from combined cholera and acute malnutrition.
Even when people can return home after being displaced, they often face significant challenges in finding or affording food or accessing services such as medical care. In Khartoum state, malnutrition has worsened since June, as more than 700,000 returnees have moved back into war-torn neighbourhoods with limited access to water and healthcare. Al Buluk hospital in Omdurman, Khartoum state, admitted 351 malnourished patients in September, while Al Banjadeed hospital in Khartoum city found 46 per cent of children screened during consultations to be malnourished. The humanitarian response in Khartoum still falls far short of the needs, with few organizations present and major gaps in both emergency aid and longer-term recovery efforts.
What’s more, the true scale of the crisis is likely far worse than reported. Without warring parties granting safe and unimpeded access to people at risk, combined with increased funding and humanitarian support from international organizations, more children will be vulnerable to Sudan’s protracted malnutrition crisis.
