Malnutrition Kills Six Children in Omdurman

A child receives a life-saving therapeutic food treatment UNICEF photo

October 26, 2024 (OMDURMAN) – Six children have died from malnutrition this month in Dar es Salaam, an Omdurman suburb, a local emergency room reported on Saturday, as Sudan’s conflict exacerbates a growing health crisis.

Thirty other children in Dar es Salaam were diagnosed with malnutrition in October, the emergency room said. Twelve women were also diagnosed with the condition.

“The medical office received new reports of six deaths and 30 new cases of malnutrition,” a member of the Dar es Salaam Emergency Room told Sudan Tribune, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The report comes as fighting between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group enters its sixth month. The conflict has disrupted healthcare and caused widespread food shortages.

In August, the Khartoum state health ministry deployed home-based screening teams to detect malnutrition, attributed to “misguided beliefs and reliance on a single food source.”

The emergency room source also reported 300 malaria cases in Dar es Salaam. It said local health centres received five to six cases daily of watery diarrhoea and vitamin A deficiency, which can cause night blindness.

The source added that health centres face severe shortages of medical laboratories, intravenous solutions and anti-malarial drugs.

The RSF controls several areas of Ombada locality, where Dar es Salaam is located. Food supplies in the area have been depleted, and markets looted and vandalized.