Malnutrition reaches 40% among Darfur children: Unicef

Half of the children in Darfur do not go to school, and 40 percent of them suffer from chronic malnutrition, the Representative of the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) in Sudan revealed on Monday. Unicef Representative Geert Cappelaere briefed the press about the conclusions of a study carried by UN agencies in Sudan. He stated that minors constitute 65 percent of the population in Darfur. Most of them are living in camps for the displaced. A total of 1,2 million children in Sudan’s western region do not have access to basic services. Only six women out of 100 give birth in health centres while 300 out of 100,000 women die in childbirth. Cappelaere termed the health sector in Darfur “risky” despite efforts to improve the situation. He noted that there are pregnant women in the region who die for “illogical reasons”, only because there are no midwives and health centres. Darfur needs about 5,000 midwifes, he explained. He also pointed to the standard of malnourishment. If malnourishment reaches 20 percent, a state of emergency should be declared. The Sudanese Minister of Health, Bahar Idris Abu Garda, acknowledged that the concentration of health services in Sudanese towns is harming citizens in the countryside. He stated that the gap of health services in some areas in Darfur has reached 50 percent. File photo Related: EU and Unicef to train teachers, midwives in Darfur (3 February 2014)Malnutrition rising in Sirba camps, West Darfur (3 December 2013)WHO: Child mortality from malnutrition reaches 40% in Sudan (23 September 2013)