MSF concern over malnourished Sudanese child refugees
Thousands of children whose families fled
the conflict in Sudan for neighbouring Chad are suffering from severe
malnutrition, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned on Friday, appealing for
emergency food aid.
Chad hosts the highest number of refugees from Sudan, where a war erupted
in April between the army and paramilitaries.
More than 8,000 people fled from Sudan to Chad in the first week of
November alone, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
The country already hosts nearly 900,000, and amid escalating fighting in
Sudan’s western Darfur region the influx has picked up in recent weeks.
In the Metche camp, which hosts 40,000 people, Doctors Without Borders said
in a statement that the prevalence of global acute malnutrition is 13.6
percent among the under fives.
Its teams have helped around 14,000 malnourished children since the start
of the year, nearly 3,000 of whom had to be taken to hospital in a serious
condition, it said.
More than 10,400 people have been killed in the Sudan conflict so far,
according to one estimate by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data
project.
The war has displaced more than 4.8 million people within Sudan while a
further 1.2 million have fled into neighbouring countries, according to UN
figures.
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