At least 190 children have been killed and 1,700 have been injured in Sudan since the start of fighting in the African country on April 25, according to data published this Friday by UNICEF. The UN organization for children denounces that, according to its reports, on average, seven children have died or been injured every hour in these eleven days.
The organization warned that these figures only include minors who had contact with a medical center, and warned that the places where they should be safe (homes, schools and hospitals) have been the object of "constant attacks, and continue to be so ".
Faced with this situation, he called on the two opposing armies to desist from attacking health centers, schools, and water and vital systems for children. "The children have been living in the midst of terrifying violence for almost three weeks, and countless families have moved to safety, both in Sudan and beyond its borders," said UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell.
In the same way, he denounced that humanitarian workers have been attacked and that facilities, vehicles and supplies, including his own, have been looted or destroyed, which diminishes his ability to "reach children across the country with vital services of health, nutrition, water and sanitation".
Finally, he noted the "critical importance" that "all parties to the conflict" fulfill their "obligations to protect children" and ensure that humanitarian actors "can operate safely on the ground to support civilians people in need".
The UN organization has also reported that more than 1 million polio vaccines have been lost as collateral damage in Sudan during the fighting.
"Several cold chain facilities have been looted, damaged and destroyed, including more than a million polio vaccines in southern Darfur," Hazel De Wet, the deputy director of the Office of Cold Chain Programs, told Reuters. UNICEF emergency.
The agency was in the midst of a series of polio vaccination campaigns in Sudan following an outbreak in late 2022. Africa was declared free of wild polio in 2020.
The fighting between the army, under the command of General Abdel Fatah al Burhan, and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (SFR) of General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, since April 15 caused some 700 deaths, according to the NGO ACLED, which registers the victims of conflicts. Nothing seems to be able to reconcile the two men, who accuse each other of violating successive truces.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden called out that "the tragedy must end" and warned that he could impose sanctions on "individuals who threaten the peace", without naming anyone.
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