Sudanese Children First Victims of War

More than 300,000 children in Sudan die every year from preventable causes, about 26,000 mothers die each year giving birth, says UNICEF

14 June 2010

UN mission dubs Southern Sudan as the ‘hungriest place on earth’ with a recent survey indicating almost 46 percent of children in the region are malnourished [file photo]

The U.N. Children's Fund says hundreds of thousands of children in Sudan are dying from preventable reasons. UNICEF says children are the first victims of war and their situation is unlikely to get better unless peace comes to that country.

The U.N. Children's Fund says more than 300,000 children in Sudan die every year from preventable causes. And, it says, about 26,000 mothers die each year giving birth.

UNICEF statistics show about 75,000 children die from malaria. But, it adds malaria deaths are going down significantly because about 70 percent of households with under-five children now have insecticide-treated mosquito nets.

APNils Kastberg, UNICEF Representative in Sudan [file photo]

UNICEF Representative in Sudan, Nils Kastberg, says diarrhea, respiratory infections and measles also are big child killers. He says too many children in Sudan are badly malnourished and that is a big reason why they are dying.

"We basically need to strengthen the nutrition value," says Kastberg. "Generally, mortality around the world, you tend to say that under-five mortality is 30 percent of the children die because they are weak out of malnutrition. In the case of Sudan, it is 60 percent of the children that have various degrees of malnutrition that weaken them and that is why they fall so easily to malaria, to diarrhea, to respiratory infections."