By Vatican News
Nearly 40 percent of children under 5-years-old are suffering from acute malnutrition in the city of El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur province.
Of those, 11 percent have been diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition.
UN spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, told reporters on Monday that people remaining in the conflict-striken city are facing “extreme shortages” of food and clean water.
Mr Dujarric said the city’s water infrastructure has been destroyed or rendered inoperable due to deferred maintenance and fuel shortages.
El Fasher has witnessed some of the worst episodes of conflict between rival militias since April 2023.
Around 780,000 people have fled the city and the nearby Zamzam displacement camps, half a million of whom left in April and May of this year.
Over three-quarters of Zamzam’s residents were displaced to areas around Tawila, and the UN and its partners are working to provide humanitarian assistance.
The situation in El Fasher has been compounded by a cholera outbreak, which causes severe and sometimes deadly diarrea, due to the breakdown of water and sanitation services.
Sudan has reported over 32,000 suspected cholera cases since the start of 2025.
The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted that two dozen people have died from cholera in South Darfur state over the past week alone.
“Conflict and collapsing infrastructure continue to drive the spread of the disease and impede response efforts,” said Mr Dujarric.
Conflict broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), leaving tens of thousands of people dead and over 12 million displaced.
Around 4 million people have fled to neighboring countries to escape the conflict, coupled with severe droughts and deadly floods. – Vatican News
