Orphanage in Khartoum evacuated after deaths

An orphanage in Sudan’s capital has been evacuated following the deaths of more than 70 infants, toddlers and older children from hunger and illness over the past couple of months, the U.N. children’s agency and a local charity said Wednesday.

The tragedy at the Al-Mayqoma orphanage made headlines late last month as fighting raged outside between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The deaths have highlighted the heavy toll inflicted on civilians since mid-April when the clashes erupted between forces loyal to Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and RSF forces led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.

About 300 children at the Al-Mayqoma orphanage in Khartoum were transferred to a “safer location” elsewhere in the north-eastern African nation, said Ricardo Pires, a spokesman for the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF.

Sudan’s ministries of social development and health have taken charge of the children, while UNICEF has provided humanitarian support including medical care, food, educational activities and play, Pires said in an email to The Associated Press.

He said the children had received medical checks following their long journey to their new location, adding that “any child requiring hospitalization will have access to healthcare.”

The International Committee of The Red Cross, which helped the evacuation, said 70 caretakers had also been transferred with the children to the new facility.