ISTANBUL

At least 46 people, mostly women and children, have died from malnutrition in Sudan’s South Kordofan state over the past two months, Sudan’s Doctors Network said Saturday, as the war-torn region faces worsening hunger and medical shortages.

The network said its teams “monitored 46 deaths in South Kordofan due to malnutrition during July and August, most of them women and children.”

It added: “More than 19,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are in urgent need of supplementary nutrition.”

The group condemned the use of starvation as a weapon of war, calling it “a crime against humanity and a war crime under international law,” while highlighting the dire humanitarian situation in the cities of Kadugli and Dalanj.

It accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of maintaining a siege on civilians, denouncing “the continued siege and starvation of civilians” and urging “the immediate lifting of the blockade and the opening of safe humanitarian corridors to allow unrestricted delivery of food and medicine.”

The network appealed to “local, regional, and international authorities, the World Health Organization, and all relevant humanitarian agencies to intervene immediately to save the lives of pregnant and breastfeeding women and children before it is too late.”

Clashes between the Sudanese army and the RSF have intensified across Sudan’s three Kordofan states in recent months.

The war, which erupted in April 2023, has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced over 14 million, according to the UN and local authorities. Independent research from US universities, however, estimates the death toll at around 130,000.