Charity body says 500 children have died from hunger in Sudan since fighting started in April

A global relief organization, Save the Children, has announced that about 500 children have died from malnutrition in Sudan since conflict erupted in April, including two dozen babies in a government-run orphanage in Khartoum.

Save the Children stated that the charity was forced to close 57 of its nutrition facilities in Sudan while adding that at least 31,000 children had been denied treatment for malnutrition and related health problems.

The charity organization stressed that at least 316 children, predominantly under the age of five, died of hunger or related illnesses in the southern White Nile province between May and July.

More than 2,400 additional children have been taken to hospitals in the last eight months with severe acute malnutrition, the most serious form of starvation, according to the agency.

Save the Children however warned that special food supplies for treating malnutrition were running low at the 108 institutions under its care in Sudan.

Sudan was thrown into chaos on April 15 after months of tensions between the military and a rival Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces erupted into open violence.

Khartoum and other urban centers have been turned into battlegrounds as a result of the conflict.

Many citizens are without running water or electricity, and the country’s health-care system is on the verge of collapsing.

The fighting is estimated to have killed at least 4,000 people, according to Liz Throssell, a spokesperson for the U.N. human rights office.