Amid months-long war in Sudan between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, with thousands fleeing the conflict, displaced children in the Shokra area of the city of Fashir in the west of the country face harsh humanitarian conditions amidst food and water scarcity and lack of shelter.
Hundreds of displaced children live in the open air and under the shade of trees amid extreme heat, while residents complain of severe shortages in healthcare services and the spread of diseases among them.
Rising food prices and scarcity:
The escalation of violence and the siege of the area have also led to rising food prices and scarcity. Thousands of children fled with their families to the Shokra area due to intensified battles within Fashir.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had warned of a threat to the lives and welfare of 750,000 children in Fashir, and possibly millions of others, in the event of an imminent military attack on the city, which shelters at least 500,000 people displaced due to violence in other parts of the country.
In a related context, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) stated that it had been forced to suspend its operations and withdraw its staff from the only functioning hospital in Wad Madani, the capital of Al Jazirah State in Sudan, due to harassment and security problems.
The organization explained on its platform that the Wad Madani Teaching Hospital, where its operations were suspended, serves hundreds of thousands.
The organization also confirmed that its teams faced problems for three months, including the inability to recruit new staff or obtain medical equipment for the facility due to lack of necessary permits, as well as repeated security incidents including hospital looting and car theft.
Médecins Sans Frontières urged warring parties to stop violating the security of healthcare facilities and ensure the safety of medical teams, and to grant necessary permits for the entry of individuals and equipment.
“Catastrophic” Famine Risk:
The World Health Organization warned in February last year (2024) that Sudan’s conflict zones are at risk of a “catastrophic” famine between April and July, the “lean period” between harvest seasons, as millions there struggle to feed themselves.
It is worth mentioning that since the outbreak of armed confrontations between the army led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo in mid-April last year (2023), more than 3.9 million people have fled from combat areas, including 3 million internally displaced persons.
The number of those fleeing the capital, Khartoum, constituted 71% of the total number of those who chose to leave their homes in search of safety in relatively peaceful states.
