Sudan doctors group says 13 children died of malnutrition in Darfur displacement camp

Thirteen children died last month from malnutrition-related causes in a camp for displaced people in Sudan’s Darfur region, according to a Sudanese doctors’ group, highlighting the worsening toll of a civil war that has produced one of the world’s gravest humanitarian emergencies.

The Sudan Doctors Network said the deaths occurred in the Lagawa camp in East Darfur province, where it says more than 7,000 displaced people, mostly women and children, are living with a severe food shortage. The group called for the international community and aid organizations to increase assistance as malnutrition among children rises.

The deaths, reported on Tuesday, add to a broader picture of hunger and disease across Sudan. The country has been engulfed in war since April 2023, when tensions between the army and the Rapid Support Forces erupted in Khartoum and spread across the country. The conflict has killed thousands of people, displaced about 13 million and driven 4 million across borders, according to the AP report.

The humanitarian situation is especially severe in Darfur. UNICEF said earlier in August that the number of children being treated for severe acute malnutrition across Darfur had risen sharply this year, and the U.N. agency said more than 40,000 children were admitted for treatment in North Darfur alone in the first five months of the year, about twice the figure for the same period in 2024. Famine has already been detected in parts of Darfur and in the southern Kordofan region.

The AP report said the war has also wrecked Sudan’s health system, leaving millions vulnerable to outbreaks of cholera, measles and malaria. That has deepened the danger for displaced families who are relying on aid that many agencies say is still too limited.

The Lagawa camp case is not just a local tragedy but a snapshot of the wider collapse in access to food, medicine and basic care. The doctors’ group said the camp’s residents face a severe shortage, and it urged action before more children die from preventable causes.

Sudan’s war has also been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings, which U.N. and human rights groups say amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in Darfur. For families in camps like Lagawa, the immediate crisis is less about battlefield lines than about whether enough food and care will arrive in time to keep children alive.