'Hell on Earth' Children starve as civil war grinds on

In the small town of Tawila, in Sudan's North Darfur state, at least 10 children are dying of hunger every day.

- Zeinab Mohammed Salih

In recent months, tens of thousands of people fleeing North Darfur's capital, the besieged and war-torn El Fasher, about 45 miles to the east, have sought refuge in the town, overwhelming Tawila's one functioning health clinic.

"We anticipate that the exact number of children dying of hunger is much higher," said Aisha Hussien Yagoub, the woman responsible for health in the civilian administration that runs Tawila.

"Many of those displaced from El Fasher are living far from our clinic and are unable to reach it." Hunger is not the only killer.

Malaria, measles and whooping cough have also been spreading like wildfire. Hussien said she knew of 19 women who had died during labour in the first two weeks of July alone. Still more have died from untreated injuries sustained amid fighting in the vicinity of El Fasher's two refugee camps, Abu Shouk and Zamzam.

The city has been under a months-long siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group engaged alongside allied militia in a brutal civil war against the Sudanese army and its allies. Tawila, itself the scene of fierce fighting last year, is the nearest place of relative safety for refugees who have managed to escape through El Fasher's western gate, the city's only open exit route.

Many do not make it to the town, dying on the long and terrifying walk from El Fasher, along roads that run past burnt-out villages and are targeted by armed gangs.