Reuters reveals expansion of graves in Darfur due to hunger
Moatinoon follow-up
A Reuters report revealed the expansion of cemeteries in many areas of Darfur due to an increase in deaths among civilians, especially children.
According to the report, satellite images taken in March and June showed rows of new graves on the southern edge of Nertiti. Between November 21 last year and June 6, the new grave area expanded 13% faster than in the previous four months.
A Reuters analysis of satellite images showed that one of the graves on the southern edge of each expanded 2.5 times in the first half of 2024 faster than in the second half of 2023.
The report confirmed the rapid expansion of graves elsewhere in the Darfur region, which was devastated by the war between the Sudanese army and the countrys rapid support forces. The crowded Zamzam displaced persons camp, now home to hundreds of thousands of people, expanded a cemetery on the southern edge of that facility nearly three times faster in the first half of 2024 than in the second half of last year.
Reuters identified 14 cemeteries in five communities across Darfur that have expanded rapidly in recent months. The new grave area in these graves grew up to three times faster in the first half of 2024 than in the second half of last year. Moreover, this increase was at the top of an already high base: the region experienced weeks of violence in the last six months of 2023 that resulted in many deaths.
In a graph of the sharp rise in mortality in the five Darfur communities, Reuters reviewed hundreds of satellite images of graves over several years. The recent expansion of the new grave area may be due in part to the high mortality rate as a result of the influx of people into camps who have fled violence.
However, the report confirmed that Reuters calculation of the amount of expansion of cemeteries may be underestimated: it does not take into account new graves dug between graves located in many places, for example, or the fact that small patches of graves are not easily identified in satellite imagery.
According to Reuters, it has only reviewed communities where there has been no fighting in the past six months to rule out the possibility that this years burial ground expansion could be due to an increase in the number of people killed in the conflict.
A local humanitarian worker told Reuters in the central Darfur town of Nertiti that no supplies had entered and ransacked the crop. He said children were dying of food shortages. He added that people eat leaves from trees and dig ant nests for breadcrumbs and other food stored in them.
The war destroyed a health care system already under pressure before the fighting began. About two-thirds of Sudanese do not have access to health care, and between 70% and 80% of the countrys health facilities were not operational as of February, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Desperate to help their sick children, parents resort to traditional methods, according to medics and community leaders contacted by phone in Darfur. They said some parents used plant stems to tie their childrens hands in the belief that it would stop malnutrition. Others boiled seeds and threw them on their childrens buttocks in the hope that they would be treated for diarrhoea.
Reuters reported this month that an estimated three-quarters of a million people in Sudan could face catastrophic food shortages by September, according to preliminary projections from the worlds leading famine watchdog. A total of nine million people - nearly 20% of the population - are in emergency or worse food.
