As bombs and air strikes rain down across Sudan, children in the country’s largest orphanage are dying. At least 50 children – half of them babies – have died in the six weeks since the war broke out between two warring generals. The main causes of death are malnourishment, dehydration and infections. The babies needed to be fed every three hours but many of the orphanage staff have either fled or are unable to get to work because of armed factions on the streets of Khartoum, the capital. Tens of thousands in the city have no access to food or water. The scenes of babies lying dead in their cribs have been “terrifying,” Heba Abdullah, an orphan turned carer, told Reuters. “It is very painful.” The UN says the war has displaced 1.3 million people.
