Starvation and mortality in Sudanese children

Sudan is experiencing disaster on a catastrophic scale since the recent conflict that broke out in 2003 between the government and the rebel forces. Five years of internal conflict has driven millions of people out of their homes seeking shelter in refugee camps in Darfur and across the border in Chad. Estimates show that nearly 2.5 million people have sought shelter in the overcrowded refugee camps and around 4.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. [Oxfam]. More than a million children are homeless and are currently living in refugee camps in Darfur and Chad. Severely traumatized and displaced from their homes, the children of Sudan are deprived of normal childhood. [Unicef] Many of the children have either lost one parent or both the parents to war and are totally dependent on aid agencies for their survival. Even those children living with a single parent are forced to do hard labor for their family survival. Malnutrition, diseases, and lack of education imply a very bleak future for these unfortunate children of a war torn Sudan. Let us have a brief overview of the situation in Sudan, the effect of hunger on children and how the crisis is being managed and what needs to be done.

War and Hunger (Effects on Children)

The African continent has witnessed continuous outbreaks of civil wars that have severely compromised the food security and driven millions of people into chronic hunger. A recent IFPRI survey estimates that the number of malnourished people in Africa, which stood at 88 million in 1970, had reached a staggering 200 million in 2000 indicating the worsening food security in the region. The IFPRI has further projected that based on the effective implementation or failure of policy measures, the number of malnourished children in Africa could be controlled to as low as 9.4 million or could be as high as 41.9 million by 2025. [IFPRI] This indicates the precarious situation of African children, many of whom are living in a very volatile environment. Sudan is currently the focus of humanitarian groups worldwide with the recent resurgence of violence that has created a disaster for the children and adults on a scale that could only be compared to the 1984 famine of Ethiopia.

During 2004, over 400,000 children were affected by measles and 8% of all malarial infections were fatal. The grim reality for Sudanese children is that even though they managed to survive the violence, and the life threatening infectious diseases, they still have to face the harsh reality of Chronic Hunger. Malnourishment rate among children in the war torn region of Darfur was estimated to be as high as 27%. [UNICEF] as per the latest survey by the UN, child malnourishment rate is at a three-year high at 16.1% exceeding the threshold of 15% for the first time since 2004. The survey also showed that malnutrition is the highest in northern Darfur with almost 20% of children identified to be malnourished. Children between 6 and 29 months old are found to be at greater risk for malnourishment. [UN] a nutritional survey by MSF (medicine Sans Frontiers) during the 2004 conflict found that Sudanese were "teetering on the verge of mass starvation." The survey conducted in Wadi Saleh and Mukjar, two of the important provinces of Darfur, revealed that 21.5% of children under 5 were suffering from severe malnutrition. [Tash Shifrin] in view of the prevailing conflict and the lack of adequate healthcare access, Sudan has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world with an average of 90 deaths per 1000 children under the age of 5. In Southern Kordofan region however, the infant mortality rate is as high as 147 out of 1000 births. Maternal mortality rate is also very high at 590 deaths per 100,000 live births. [Save the Children]

The Role of Humanitarian Organizations

Organizations such as UNICEF, WHO, WFP, USAID are coordinating with several non-governmental organizations such as the, IRC, Oxfam, Warchild, 'Save the Children', etc., in implementing relief operations and providing humanitarian assistance for the conflict torn regions of Sudan. However, the dangerous political climate has placed severe hurdles for these voluntary organizations in the implementation of their relief measures. Food camps and medical camps organized by these organizations offer the only way to appease hunger and to access life saving interventions for many of the people in the region as most of hospitals have either ceased to function or run severely understaffed and without the resources under the constant threat from rebels. The sheer number of hungry people in these settlements has made it difficult for the NGO's to focus on any specialized nutrition plan for malnourishment, as the first priority is to provide food for everyone. Therefore, even in these settlement camps, malnutrition continues to be very high as Richard Brennan, M.D., director of health programs for the International Rescue Committee, says, "We are on the razor's edge in terms of mortality. The best camp has 40% acute malnutrition and it's had outbreaks of measles and hepatitis. We can infer that the places where we don't have good data, it's worse." [IRC]

Treatment for malnourished children is thus a high priority as left unattended acutely malnourished children face imminent death. Oxfam and the WFP are engaged in Therapeutic and Supplemental Feeding for the acutely malnourished children of Darfur. Since 2004, more than 1000 acutely malnourished kids have received care in the four therapeutic nutrition centers operated by Oxfam. In view of the very high rates of malnourishment among children in the Geneina and Sirba regions, Oxfam has distributed food rations to all the children under 5 years of age in these regions. [Save the Children] the United States continues to be the major sponsor for the WFP (world food program) contributing to as much as 85% of the WFP in Darfur. Between 2004 and 2006, the United States has contributed more than 1 billion $ towards food distribution and nutritional programs in Darfur. As Michael Hess, assistant administrator for the USAID program states, 'WFP and our partners are working hard to make sure that the therapeutic feeding programs and the supplemental feeding programs for those who are most at risk will continue'. [Charles W. Corey]

Controlling opportunistic infections is also a high priority among the hunger struck and malnourished children. Among the infectious diseases, measles carried a very high mortality rate and a vaccination initiative by UNICEF and the government of Sudan was undertaken in late 2005 to be completed over a period of 18 months. Sponsored by the U.S. CDC, Canadian and Australian governments and the UN, this 12 million dollar vaccination programme was a major healthcare initiative inoculating more than 4.5 million children in southern Darfur regions. A 2007 survey revealed that the massive measles vaccination programs in Africa have led to a 75% decline in mortality rates due to measles. "One of the clearest messages from this achievement is that with the right strategies and a strong partnership of committed governments and organizations," said CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding, "you can rapidly reduce child deaths in developing countries." [USINFO]

Conclusion