The international charity Save the Children has warned that at least three babies a minute are being born in Sudan into conditions “no child should ever face”, as a ruinous conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) hits its third-year mark. The organization stated on Tuesday that official data shows 5.6 million births in Sudan since the war began in April 2023, meaning 5,000 children a day are born in a country where millions survive on just one meal a day. Mohamed Abdiladif, country director for Save the Children in Sudan, said these children are born in overcrowded shelters, under-equipped or damaged health facilities, or while their families are on the move, emphasizing that children have a right to care and protection even in conflict.
On April 15, 2023, a rivalry between Sudan’s army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the commander of the RSF, Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, exploded into a war that quickly spread across the country. Since then, the fighting has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced some 12 million, and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations. Both sides have been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, while the RSF has been implicated in atrocities in the vast Darfur region that UN experts say bear the hallmarks of genocide.
Widespread violence and attacks on civilian infrastructure have strained the country’s already fragile healthcare system, placing millions of mothers and newborns at deadly risk, Save the Children reported. The rate that mothers die during childbirth has increased by more than 12 percent – from 263 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022 to 295 per 100,000 in 2025. Up to 80 percent of health facilities in conflict-affected areas have become nonoperational, while those still working face shortages of supplies, medicine, staff, and fuel.
The World Health Organization has verified some 200 attacks on health facilities since the start of the war that have killed more than 2,000 people. In March, a drone attack on the al-Daein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur killed at least 64 people, including 13 children and several healthcare workers, and rendered the entire hospital nonfunctional. Abdiladif said attacks on healthcare facilities “severely and permanently” affect mothers’ and newborns’ access to essential care, calling on all parties involved in the conflict to ensure the protection of civilians and allow access to reach families in urgent need of assistance.
Source: www.aljazeera.com