Rhino: Agencies – Pregnant women, mothers and newborns are dying at a shocking rate in Sudan’s South Darfur state, and thousands of malnourished children are on the brink of famine, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned on Wednesday.

The organization added that it recorded 46 cases of maternal deaths in two hospitals in South Darfur supported by the charity during the period from January to August, and 48 cases of newborn deaths due to sepsis in the same two hospitals during the period from January to June.

Nearly a third of children under the age of two screened in South Darfur in August were acutely malnourished, more than twice the World Health Organization’s emergency level, the organization said. More than 8 percent of these children were found to be suffering from severe acute malnutrition, a common cause of death.

Gillian Burkhardt, the organization’s sexual and reproductive health manager for South Darfur, said in a statement: “Multiple health emergencies are occurring simultaneously with almost no international response from the UN and others,” adding that” newborns, pregnant women and new mothers are dying in shocking numbers.”

According to the report, conflict and displacement are forcing women to give birth in unsanitary conditions in areas where they do not have access to health care and medicines.

Doctors Without Borders called on the UN to “act decisively to prevent further loss of life in Darfur.”