UNICEF calls for better protection for Sudan’s children trapped in ‘unrelenting nightmare’

CAIRO—The conflict in Sudan has killed over 330 children and left 13 million more in dire need of humanitarian assistance, UNICEF said Friday, calling on the country’s warring factions to better protect vulnerable young people.

For two months, Sudan’s military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamden Dagalo, have been locked in a deadly power struggle. The fighting has killed more than 958 civilians, according to Sudan’s Doctors’ Syndicate, which only tracks civil - ian casualties. The true death toll is likely much higher.

“Children are trapped in an unrelenting nightmare, bearing the heaviest burden of a violent crisis they had no hand in creating— caught in the crossfire, injured, abused, displaced and subjected to disease and malnutrition,” said Mandeep O’Brien, UNICEF’s Representative in Sudan, in a report issued Friday.

According to the United Nations’ latest figures, the eight weeks of fighting have displaced more than 2 million people across the country, with lawlessness and ethnic violence intensifying across the Darfur region.

It wasn’t immediately clear how UNICEF accounted for the 13 million children. There are roughly 21 million children in Sudan, which had a population of over 45 million before the conflict broke out.

Last week, the International Committee of the Red Cross rescued 297 children from an orphanage in Khartoum. The operation came after 71 children had died from hunger and illness in the facility since mid-April.

In West Darfur province, “at least 14,836 children under five are expected to be severely malnourished,” UNICEF said. For weeks, the restive province has been under a near-complete communications blackout.

Khamis Abdalla Abkar, the governor of West Darfur, was abducted and killed on Wednesday hours after he accused the RSF and allied Arab militias of attacking local communities across the province’s capital, Genena. Abkar made the accusation during a telephone interview with the Saudi-owned television station, Al-Hadath.

Later Wednesday, video footage circulating on social media showed a group of armed men, some wearing RSF uniforms, detaining Abkar. Shortly after, new footage—too graphic to broad - cast—purportedly showed Abkar laying on the ground motionless with wounds in his neck and face.

On Thursday, Sudan’s Military and United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission, or UNITAMS, blamed the RSF and affiliated Arab militias for the killing.

“Compelling eyewitness accounts attribute this act to Arab militias and the Rapid Support Forces,” UNITAMS said in a short statement.

The RSF denied any involvement in the murder, instead blaming “outlaws” for killing Abkar. The paramilitary accused the military and its intelligence service of fueling tribal conflict, in a post on its social media page on Thursday.

In the early 2000s, African tribes in Darfur that had long complained of discrimination rebelled against Khartoum’s Islamist government, which responded with a military campaign that the International Criminal Court later said amounted to genocide. The state-backed Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, were accused of widespread killings, rapes and other atrocities. The Janjaweed later folded into the RSF. UNICEF said it needed $838 million to address the crisis. AP

EJ makes podium for 3rd consecutive time in Euro stint

ERNEST JOHN “EJ” OBIENA settled for a bronze medal this time at the Oslo Bislett Games on Friday in Oslo to go 3-of-3 so far in podium finishes in his European outdoor campaign.

Fresh from breaking 6 meters in Bruggen also in Norway last Saturday, Obiena cleared 5.81 meters at the Bislett Stadion to finish third in the meet dominated by Olympic and world champion and world record holder Armand Duplantis of Sweden.

D uplantis cleared 6.01 meters— off his world record 6.22 he set at the world championships in Oregon last year—to bag the gold medal.

A merican Christopher Nilsen grabbed silver with 5.91 meters.

Obiena started his European outdoor campaign with a bronze medal at 5.72 meters in the Irena Szewinska Memorial in Bydgoszcz, Poland, last June 8.

O biena’s long-time adviser Jim Lafferty said the world No. 3 and Asia’s No. 1 Obiena remains a work in progress.

EJ was cruising through 5.81m in a tie for first place and no misses so far,” Lafferty said. “At 5.91, he missed two attempts and then after passing 6.01, he missed his third attempt.”

He again made a gutsy call to go for the win as he did last week—as it goes with risk-taking, it never pays off 100% of the time,” he added.

L afferty said Obiena’s undergoing an adjustment period which is focused on his medal prospect at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

“ I talked to EJ and he’s still adjusting to the longer approach. His

Young Rianne bows to Irish rival in Kent

RIANNE MALIXI lost grip of what appeared to be a big 3-up frontside lead as she lost her rhythm and allowed Irish Sara Byrne to snare a 1-up victory in the first round of Match Play in The Women’s Amateur at the Prince’s Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent in southeast England Thursday.

It was a sorry turn of events for the Filipina shotmaker, who had looked in control of the match after winning holes 1, 3 and 8. But she hit the wall of the fairway bunker on the ninth, leading to a bogey and Byrne cashed in on that break to mount her rally and fashion out the big comefrom-behind win.

A fter both traded missed birdie putts on Nos. 10 and 11, Byrne birdied the 12th which Malixi failed to match from 10 feet. Another Byrne birdie on the next coupled with Malixi’s muffed putt from eight feet forced an all-square match with the former wresting the lead as the latter missed the 14th green and a parsaving putt from five feet.

T he International Container Terminal Services Inc.-backed Malixi chipped past the hole on the par-five 15th and failed to convert a birdie and when she did drill one on the next, Byrne also made hers to stay ahead and the two matched pars on the par-three 17th.

Ne eding a birdie on the closing par-4 hole to extend the match, Malixi banged in a 10-footer but Byrne also holed out with a birdie of her own to advance to the Last 32 phase and frustrate her 16-yearold rival, who sparked hopes of a big campaign in one of the world’s premier amateur events when she battled back from the brink with a gallant second round 69 to make the grade in the 36-hole stroke play qualifying.

W hile it was another heartbreaker of a stint for Malixi, the world No. 93 still relished the chance to compete with some of the world’s best and on such a demanding links course, the exposure and the learnings she gained seen to further toughen her up as she heads to her next campaign, the Western Women’s Amateur in Illinois from July 18 to 23.