More than 1,200 children have died in the past 5 months in conflict-wrecked Sudan, the UN says

More than 1,200 children under age 5 have died in nine camps in war-scarred Sudan in the past five months, because of a deadly combination of measles and malnutrition, the U.N.’s refugee agency said Tuesday.

The UNHCR said the deaths, between May 15 and Sept. 14, were documented by its teams in the White Nile province, where thousands of Sudanese have sheltered as fighting has raged for six months between rival generals, in the capital of Khartoum and elsewhere. There were thousands of suspected cases of cholera in other parts of the country, UNHCR public health chief Allen Maina said.

“Dozens of children are dying every day — a result of this devastating conflict and a lack of global attention,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said.