‘Large number of children’ killed in Sudan
The UN yesterday warned that large numbers of children were dying in the Sudan conflict, pointing to reports indicating that seven children were being killed or injured every hour.
"As feared and as warned, the situation in Sudan has become fatal for a frighteningly large number of children," James Elder, spokesman for the UN children's agency Unicef, told reporters in Geneva.
He said the agency had received reports from a trusted partner -- not yet independently verified by the UN -- that 190 children were killed and 1,700 injured in just the first 11 days of the conflict that began on April 15.
Elder pointed out that those numbers had been gathered from health facilities in Khartoum and the Darfur region, reports AFP.
That means it only covers the children that actually made it to healthcare facilities in those areas, he said, warning that "the reality is likely to be much worse".
Hundreds of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes in Sudan since battles began three weeks ago between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan's forces and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo's Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The sides have agreed to a string of short ceasefires, but none has been fully respected, and yesterday heavy gunfire echoed around Khartoum again and there was no sign of any letup in fighting as civilians trapped in the Sudanese capital said their plight was being ignored by both the army and its rival, reports Reuters.
"It's been four days without electricity and our situation is difficult... We are the victims of a war that we aren't a part of. No one cares about the citizen," said Othman Hassan, 48, a resident of the southern outskirts of Khartoum.
Across swathes of Khartoum, factories, banks and shops have been looted or damaged, power and water supplies have been failing and residents have reported steep price rises and shortages of basic goods.
"Sudan's warring armies are showing reckless disregard for civilian lives by using inaccurate weapons in populated urban areas," said Human Rights Watch Sudan researcher Mohamed Osman, in a report by the group documenting damage to hospitals and water treatment plants caused by fighting.
The Sudanese Doctors Union said one of the country's main maternity hospitals, Aldayat in the adjoining city of Omdurman, had been looted and occupied by forces on Thursday.
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