More than 1,200 children have died from malnutrition and diseases such as measles in refugee camps housing people displaced by the ongoing conflict in Sudan, the UN said on Tuesday.
The figure refers to children under the age of five who had been living in camps in the White Nile state, just south of Khartoum, who had died since May. It was announced by Allen Maina, chief of public health at the UN refugee agency UNHCR at a briefing in Geneva.
The conflict that broke out almost six months ago between Sudanese government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has brought the country's healthcare system to its knees.
According to the World Health Organization, 3.4 million babies and young children are severely undernourished in Sudan.
The UN children's agency UNICEF said that of the 330,000 babies due by the end of the year, "many thousands of newborns" would die.
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