Children starving in Gireida camps, South Darfur

The number of child deaths as a result of diarrhoea, malnutrition, and a lack of health care, is increasing alarmingly in the Gireida camps in South Darfur. “More and more children are dying lately of diarrhoea and hunger in the five camps for the displaced in Gireida locality’, a resident of Abdos camp reported to Radio Dabanga. “Each of the three health centres available for the 127,000 people living in the five camps daily receives between 50 to 70 patients, while the medical staff can see only 30 patients a day.” She attributed the high mortality rate among the children to the stoppage of food rations, owing to the expulsion of aid organisations from Darfur, as well as to the reduction of the amount of therapeutic food mixture to half a malwa (3,15 kg) a month. File photo: A malnourished child in a clinic of the NGO Kuwait Patient Helping Fund in Abu Shouk camp, North Darfur, September 2013  (Albert González Farran/Unamid)Related: ‘Huge food gaps in South and North Darfur’: officials (6 May 2014)