Church group spells out urgent need for aid

The British-based Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) has called for the urgent delivery of additional aid to Sudan amid “clear signs of an alarming rise in the cases of child malnutrition” but also a sense that there is still time to prevent a humanitarian calamity on the scale of the 1998 famine. Assessments in Bahr al-Ghazal by the agency’s partners had reported a sharp rise in the number of children arriving at feeding centres in the last month, and strong signs that food was becoming scarce in the community, said Rob Rees, CAFOD’s programme officer for Sudan, in a press statement. CAFOD partners saw mothers cooking wild fruits and nuts because they did not have enough food, and eye infections and ringworm were now a common sight among children, he said. The rivers are running dry and clean water is scarce. Many of the most acute cases of hunger and malnutrition are among those people who have been forced to abandon their homes because of the ongoing civil war, according to the press statement.

“It is tragic that... the children of Sudan continue to be the innocent victims of war and drought. World leaders must show the same determination to bring peace to Sudan as they have shown in the Middle East and the Balkans,” Rees added.