Health workers at the UNFPA Tunaydbah field hospital in Sudan’s eastern Gedaraf state provided critical maternal health care as flooding worsens the refugee crisis caused by conflict (file photo).
More than one million pregnant women in the country now lack access to basic services such as antenatal care, safe delivery, and postpartum care, according to the World Health Organisation. In some areas, locals report that health services are virtually non-existent.
The UN had previously estimated Sudan’s maternal mortality rate at 270 deaths per 100,000 live births. But the Federal Ministry of Health now reports that there are 100 deaths per 10,000 births, a number confirmed by the WHO and UNICEF.
The latest Sudanese conflict, which began as a power struggle between rival factions of the military, has devastated women’s access to healthcare, leaving them to travel long distances under dangerous conditions “often with tragic outcomes”.
allAfrica/UN News
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