Special Report: Dozens of babies die in orphanage as Sudan war takes grim toll on Khartoum

A view from inside an orphanage in Khartoum, Sudan, in this handout image released April 20, 2023. Courtesy of Dr. Abdallah Kenany/Handout via REUTERS

(Reuters) - In the days after war erupted in Khartoum, Dr Abeer Abdullah rushed between rooms at Sudan’s largest orphanage, trying to care for hundreds of babies and toddlers as the fighting kept all but a handful of staff away. Children’s cries rang through the sprawling building as heavy gunfire rocked the surroundings, she said.

Then came waves of deaths. There were the infants housed on the upper floors of the state-run orphanage, known as Mygoma. Without enough staff to care for them, they succumbed to severe malnutrition and dehydration, the doctor said. And there were the already-fragile newborns in her medical clinic on the ground floor, some of whom died after developing high fever, she said.