KHARTOUM, Sudan

Over 5 million people in Sudan need humanitarian assistance and nearly 2.5 million children there get sick every year due to acute malnutrition, a UN agency said Tuesday.

The number of people in need in Sudan rose by 700,000 compared to last year to 5.5 million. Natural disasters such as floods and droughts have negatively affected food security and the livelihoods of vulnerable people in the country, the Sudan office of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.

“Each year, nearly 2.5 million children get sick due to severe malnutrition and nearly 700,000 of them are severely affected,” statement said.

“While agricultural production improved in 2017, food insecurity needs increased, mainly driven by increases in prices,” it said.

The agency said Sudan faces two major overlapping humanitarian challenges: one triggered by the impact of conflict leading to large-scale population displacement and another due to climatic and socio-cultural conditions leading to high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition.