Sudanese who escaped from war-torn Tuti island speak of hunger, disease 

OMDURMAN, Sudan — 

Muhammad Awad and his household are among dozens who escaped Sudan's Tuti land earlier this twelvemonth amid a siege by the Rapid Support Forces, uncovering refuge astatine a structure aft surviving for months connected scant nutrient and the hazard of disease.

The land successful the mediate of the Nile serves arsenic a microcosm for the devastation unleashed by a warfare that began successful April 2023.

More than 61,000 radical are estimated to person died successful Khartoum authorities during the archetypal 14 months of Sudan’s war, importantly much than antecedently recorded, according to a caller report.

Activists study that the RSF charged radical ample sums to evacuate them.

"There is nary bully food, and there's a batch of diseases, determination is nary sleep, nary safety," Awad said, holding 1 of his children astatine the structure for displaced residents successful Omdurman, an army-controlled refuge.

The land is 1 of 14 places crossed Sudan astatine hazard of famine, according to experts. Dengue fever has ravaged Tuti, a close-knit farming community.

Sarah Siraj, a parent who near with her 2 children, said six oregon 7 radical were dying daily, and that she was lone capable to person her children treated for dengue, a mosquito-borne disease, erstwhile she reached Omdurman.

Charity kitchens person been forced to adjacent successful Tuti and elsewhere successful the superior Khartoum owed to deficiency of backing and supplies, and precocious prices.

Rabeea Abdel Gader, a nutrition guide, has been treating recently arrived families astatine a metropolis shelter.

"We inquire the parent astir what they eat.... Sometimes the parent responds with her tears. She cannot reply due to the fact that of their conditions," she said.

The RSF did not respond to a petition for remark by Reuters.