Malnutrition in Darfur’s besieged el-Fasher city kills 23 people in a month

CAIRO (AP) – A Sudanese medical group has warned of a “full-blown humanitarian disaster” in the besieged city of el-Fasher after 23 people died of malnutrition in September, as fighting between the army and rival paramilitaries continues to exacerbate the crisis in Darfur.

Sudan Doctors Network said in a statement late Thursday that children and five pregnant women were among those who died from severe malnutrition, but didn’t provide a specific count of dead children.

El-Fasher is the military’s last stronghold in the sprawling Darfur region. Fighting has intensified in recent months and hundreds of civilians have been killed in attacks by Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, since April, according to a report last week by the U.N. Human Rights Office.

The Sudan Doctors Network statement described the RSF siege on the city as a “systematic crime represented by depriving civilians of their right to life and targeting El Fasher citizens with famine as a weapon of war.”

The group said the siege constitutes war crimes against humanity under international law and blamed the international community, including the United Nations, for “their silence and failure to intervene despite the clear magnitude of the tragedy.”

It added: “The Network warns that the continuation of this situation means that El Fasher is entering a phase of silent genocide against tens of thousands of women and children.”

Fighting between the military and the rival RSF erupted in April 2023 and soon turned into a civil war that enveloped the country, killing at least 40,000 people and displacing as many as 12 million others, according to the U.N. Over 24 million people are acutely food insecure, according to the World Food Program.

UNICEF said in August more than 10,000 children in el-Fasher have been treated for severe acute malnutrition since January, which is double the figure from last year. In a single week, at least 63 people, mostly women and children died of malnutrition.

The U.N. children’s agency said the siege completely severed supply lines from the city, forcing health facilities and mobile nutrition teams to suspend their services and cutting treatment for an estimated 6,000 children with severe acute malnutrition.