UN report on acute malnutrition in Darfur 'inaccurate', Sudanese official says

Central Darfur Health Minister Musa Khatir has described as inaccurate a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report that says there were critical levels of acute malnutrition in the Sudanese state.

The U.N. humanitarian body (OCHA) cited in its report a survey by UNICEF in June saying out of the 42,667 children under five screened for acute malnutrition in the West and Central Jebel Marra area, “nearly 800 were suffering from SAM, including 258 with oedema, while 3,909 children had moderate acute malnutrition (MAM).”

Musa Khatir told the Sudan Media Center (SMC) that his ministry had also conducted a survey and there was no case of malnutrition in the area, local media Sudan Tribune reports.

He added that UNICEF released its report without crosschecking with the authorities on the authenticity of the information.

According to the UNICEF report, all the children from the 69 villages covered in West Jebel Marra and 83 villages in Central Jebel Marra with severe acute malnutrition were admitted to Outpatient Therapeutic Feeding Programmes (OTPs).

Conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when mainly non-Arab tribes took up arms against Sudan’s Arab-led government.

Women and children were affected with over half a million children suffering from severe acute malnutrition and at risk of death.

The conflict generally left over 2 million children under the age of five suffering from inadequate growth.