Um Dafuq, April 04 (Darfur24)
At least 18 people, including 13 children, have died following a measles outbreak in the Birao refugee camp for Sudanese refugees in the Central African Republic (CAR), multiple medical sources confirmed.
The outbreak comes amid deteriorating health conditions in the camp, where residents report severe shortages of medicine and limited medical services at the only hospital, previously supported by humanitarian organizations.
Abdullah Abdulrahman, a refugee in the camp, told Darfur24 that families have resorted to traditional remedies after losing hope of accessing proper treatment, noting that many children have gone without vaccinations for an extended period.
Birao camp hosts thousands of Sudanese refugees who fled violence in the Darfur region, including pastoralist communities who traditionally move between Sudan and the Central African Republic in search of water and grazing land.
According to estimates by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 38,000 Sudanese have crossed into the Central African Republic since the outbreak of war in Sudan in April 2023. The displacement is part of a wider regional crisis that has forced over 4.1 million Sudanese to seek refuge in neighboring countries.