Dozens of babies die in orphanage
\nWar erupted in Khartoum on April 15 between army chief and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces
\nKHARTOUM
\nIn the days after war erupted in Khartoum, Dr Abeer Abdullah rushed between rooms at Sudan\u2019s largest orphanage, trying to care for hundreds of babies and toddlers as the fighting kept all but a handful of staff away. Children\u2019s cries rang through the sprawling building as heavy gunfire rocked the surroundings, she said.
\nThen came waves of deaths. There were the infants housed on the upper floors of the state-run orphanage, known as Mygoma. Without enough staff to care for them, they succumbed to severe malnutrition and dehydration, the doctor said. And there were the already-fragile newborns in her medical clinic on the ground floor, some of whom died after developing high fever, she said.
\n\u201cThey needed to be fed every three hours. There was no one there,\u201d said Abdullah, speaking by phone from the orphanage, the cries of wailing babies audible in the background. \u201cWe tried to give intravenous therapy but most of the time we couldn\u2019t rescue the children.\u201d
\nThe daily deaths ticked up to two, three, four and higher, Abdullah said. At least 50 children – at least two dozen of them babies – have died at the orphanage in the six weeks since the war broke out in mid-April, according to Abdullah. That includes at least 13 babies who died on Friday, May 26, she said.
\nA senior orphanage official confirmed those figures and a surgeon who has volunteered at the facility during the war said there had been at least several dozen deaths of orphans. Both said the deaths were mostly of newborns and others under a year old. All three cited malnourishment, dehydration and infections as the main causes.
\nThere were further deaths over this past weekend. Reuters reviewed seven death certificates dated Saturday or Sunday that were shared by Heba Abdullah, an orphan-turned-carer. All cited circulatory failure as the cause of death, and all but one also listed fever, malnutrition, or sepsis as contributing causes.
\nThe scenes of babies lying dead in their cribs have been \u201cterrifying,\u201d Abdullah said. \u201cIt is very painful.\u201d
\nReuters spoke to eight other people who have either visited the orphanage since the war began or have been in touch with other visitors. All said conditions have deteriorated badly and deaths have spiked.
\nAmong them is Siddig Frini, general manager of Khartoum state\u2019s ministry of social development, which oversees care centres, including budget, staffing and supplies. He acknowledged a rise in deaths at Mygoma, attributing it mainly to staff shortages and recurrent power outages caused by the fighting. Without working ceiling fans and air conditioning, rooms turn stiflingly hot in Khartoum\u2019s baking May weather, and the lack of power makes sterilising equipment difficult.
\nFrini and the director of the orphanage, Zeinab Jouda, referred questions about the total death toll to Abdullah, Mygoma\u2019s medical chief. Jouda said she was aware of more than 40 deaths, telling Reuters the fighting kept the carers – known as nannies – and other staff away in the early days of the war. As of Friday, May 26, she said that there are ongoing discussions about evacuating orphans out of Khartoum.
\nMohammed Abdel Rahman, director of emergency operations at Sudan\u2019s health ministry, said a team is investigating what is happening at Mygoma and will release the results once done.
\nThe area remains dangerous. Late last week, airstrikes and artillery slammed the district where Mygoma is located, according to Abdullah the doctor and two others. Following an explosion at a neighbouring building, babies had to be evacuated from one of the orphanage\u2019s rooms, said carer Heba Abdullah.
\nInvisible victims of a larger war
\nMygoma\u2019s dead babies are among the invisible victims of the war in Sudan, Africa\u2019s third-largest country by area. The fighting has killed more than 700 people, injured thousands of others and displaced at least 1.3 million people within Sudan or neighbouring countries, according to the United Nations.
\nThe real death toll is likely to be higher. Many of the health and government offices that would track fatalities in Khartoum, where fighting has been heaviest, have ceased to function. Sudan\u2019s health ministry has separately recorded hundreds of deaths in the city of El Geneina in Darfur region, where violence also has flared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dozens of babies die in orphanage War erupted in Khartoum on April 15 between army chief and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces KHARTOUM In the days after war erupted in Khartoum, Dr Abeer Abdullah rushed between rooms at Sudan\u2019s largest orphanage, trying to care for hundreds of babies and toddlers as the fighting kept all but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-334167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n