SHARG ELNIL, Sudan: In a nutrition ward at a hospital in Sudan’s war-stricken capital, gaunt mothers lie next to even thinner toddlers with wide, sunken eyes.
The patients at Alban Jadeed Hospital are in urgent need of help after nearly two years of battles that have trapped residents and cut off supplies, but doctors have to ration the therapeutic milk and other products used to treat them.
The war that erupted in April 2023 from a power struggle between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has created what the United Nations calls the world’s largest and most devastating humanitarian crisis.
About half of Sudan’s population of 50 million now suffer some degree of acute hunger, and famine has taken hold in at least five areas, including several parts of North Darfur State in western Sudan.
The real situation could be worse, since fighting has prevented proper data collection in many areas, medics and aid staff say.
In Sudan’s greater capital, where the cities of Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri are divided by the Nile, the warring factions have prevented deliveries of aid and commercial supplies, pushing the prices of goods beyond most people’s reach.
Alban Jadeed Hospital, in Bahri’s Sharg Elnil district, received more than 14,000 children under five years old suffering from severe acute malnutrition last year, and another 12,000 with a more mild form, said Azza Babiker, head of the therapeutic nutrition department.
Only 600 of the children tested were a normal weight, she said.
The supply of therapeutic formula milk via UN children’s agency UNICEF and medical aid agency MSF is insufficient, Babiker said, as RSF soldiers twice stole the supplies.
Both sides deny impeding aid deliveries.
The sharp reduction of USAID funding is expected to make things worse, hitting the budgets of aid agencies that provide crucial nutritional supplies as well as community kitchens relied upon by many, aid workers say.
The army recently captured Sharg Elnil from the RSF, as part of recent gains it has made across the capital.
Fruit and vegetables have become extremely scarce. “Aside from the difficulty of getting these products in, not all families can afford to buy them,” Babiker said.
Many mothers are unable to produce milk, often due to trauma resulting from RSF attacks, or their own malnutrition, said Raneen Adel, a doctor at Alban Jadeed.
“There are cases who come in dehydrated ... because for example the RSF entered the house and the mother was frightened so she stopped producing breast milk, or she was beaten,” she said.
The RSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A lack of nutrition and sanitation has led to cases of blood poisoning and other illnesses, but the hospital has also run out of antibiotics.
“We had to tell the patients’ companions to get (the drugs) from outside, but they can’t afford to buy them,” Adel said.
Medics struggle to revive Sudan’s hungry with trickle of aid supplies
https://arab.news/9t72p
Medics struggle to revive Sudan’s hungry with trickle of aid supplies
- The patients at Alban Jadeed Hospital are in urgent need of help
- The real situation could be worse, since fighting has prevented proper data collection in many areas, medics and aid staff say
UN ok’d to send ‘around 100’ aid trucks into Gaza: spokesman
GENEVA: The United Nations said on Tuesday it has received permission to send “around 100” trucks of aid into the war-shattered Gaza Strip, as humanitarian assistance trickled back in to the territory.
“We have requested and received approval of more trucks to enter today, many more than were approved yesterday,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for UN Office for Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters in Geneva, adding that “we expect, of course, with that approval, many of them, hopefully all of them, to cross today to a point where they can be picked up and get further into the Gaza Strip for distribution.”
Army, paramilitaries clash near Sudan capital
- The army said its operation which began on Monday was aimed at driving the paramilitaries from their last positions in Khartoum state
KHARTOUM: Clashes erupted on Tuesday between the Sudanese regular army and rival paramilitaries in Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city, with the army calling the fighting part of a "large-scale" offensive.
An AFP correspondent at the scene said explosions rang out in the area, where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had retreated after losing control of the Sudanese capital in March.
The army said its operation which began on Monday was aimed at driving the paramilitaries from their last positions in Khartoum state.
"We are pressing a large-scale operation and we are close to clearing the whole of Khartoum state from dirty thugs," military spokesman Nabil Abdallah said in a statement.
The war since April 2023 has pitted the army headed by Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against the RSF under his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
The fighting comes as both the army and the RSF are attempting to establish their own governments.
On Monday, army chief Burhan has tapped a former United Nations official, Kamil Idris, as a new prime minister -- a move seen by analysts as an attempt to gain international recognition and present a functioning civilian-led government amid the ongoing war.
The African Union on Tuesday welcomed the appointment, calling it "a step toward inclusive governance" and expressing hope that the move will "restore constitutional order and democratic governance in Sudan".
The RSF announced in April it would form a rival administration, a few weeks after signing a charter in Kenya with a coalition of military and political allies.
In recent weeks, the RSF has staged multiple drone attacks on areas around the country, including Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, the seat of the army-aligned government since the war began.
Omdurman, which is situated just across the River Nile from Khartoum, has been a focal point of fighting in recent days.
This week, a days-long electricity blackout hit the whole Khartoum state, following drone strikes blamed on the RSF on three power stations in Omdurman.
Medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) said on Sunday that the power outages had disrupted health services at the city's major hospitals.
"The magnitude of these drone attacks represents a major escalation in the conflict, with alarming implications for civilian protection," the UN's human rights expert on Sudan, Radhouane Nouicer, said in a statement on Monday.
"The recurrent attacks on critical infrastructure place civilian lives at risk, worsen the humanitarian crisis, and undermine basic human rights."
The army has meanwhile launched attacks in areas controlled by the RSF in the country's south, trying to claim territory and cut off rival supply lines.
The Emergency Lawyers, a monitoring group which has documented atrocities on both sides, on Sunday accused the army of killing 18 civilians, including four children, in an attack on Al-Hamadi village in South Kordofan state last week.
The war has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million and sparked what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
The conflict has carved up Sudan, with the army controlling the north, east, and centre, while the RSF dominates nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.
Malnutrition in Gaza could rise exponentially, UNRWA official says
- Malnutrition rates in Gaza have risen during a more than 11-week Israeli blockade
- Israel cleared nine trucks of aid on Monday to enter Gaza
GENEVA: Malnutrition rates in Gaza have risen during a more than 11-week Israeli blockade and could rise exponentially if food shortages continue, a health official at the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said on Tuesday.
“I have data until end of April and it shows malnutrition on the rise,” Akihiro Seita, UNRWA Director of Health, told a Geneva press briefing.
“And then the worry is that if the current food shortage continues, it will exponentially increase, and then get beyond our control.”
Israel cleared nine trucks of aid on Monday to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing although aid workers said just five entered.
Israel’s Elbit Systems posts profit jump on Gaza war, rising defense budgets
- More than 32 percent of Elbit’s revenue came from Israel, where the country has been fighting Hamas
TEL AVIV: Israel’s largest defense firm Elbit Systems reported higher first-quarter profit on Tuesday, boosted by sales to Israel’s military during its war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and as global defense spending rises.
Elbit said it earned $2.57 per diluted share excluding one-time items in the first quarter of 2025, up from $1.81 a year earlier.
The results were boosted by a 20 percent increase in aerospace sales, largely of precision guided munitions from which revenue rose 22 percent to $1.9 billion.
More than 32 percent of Elbit’s revenue came from Israel, where the country has been fighting Hamas since October 7, 2023. The company has supplied munitions, drones, guided rocket systems, reconnaissance capabilities and other systems.
As numerous global conflicts boosted national defense budgets, Elbit’s backlog of orders reached $23.1 billion. Some 66 percent of the backlog is from outside Israel, while 51 percent of the orders are scheduled to be fulfilled during 2025 and 2026.
“Elbit is well positioned to capture and benefit from the opportunities of increasing defense budgets globally and particularly in Europe,” said CEO Bezhalel Machlis. “We are continuing to invest in increasing our production capacity and optimizing our supply chains in order to address our backlog and the high demand for our products.”
Elbit said it would pay a quarterly dividend of 60 cents a share, the same as in the fourth quarter.
