WHO: Child mortality from malnutrition reaches 40% in Sudan

Child mortality due to malnutrition has reached 40 per cent in Sudan, according to Dr Anshu Banerjee, representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Sudan. Dr Banerjee expressed the WHO’s concerns about the high rates of chronic malnutrition among children in Sudan, numbering 1.8 million. The federal Ministry of Health acknowledged that the percentage of malnutrition among children in Sudan has become higher than the global malnutrition figures. The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, Esam Abdallah, confirmed that half a million children in Sudan are suffering from chronic malnutrition, which means that one in 20 Sudanese children is severely malnourished. He added that daily around 48 mothers die during childbirth, and that there are more than 2,000 patients with heart problems. File photo Related: Malnutrition kills 10 children in Central Darfur (2 September 2013) OCHA boss: Sudan malnutrition rate above emergency threshold (16 August 2013)