Sudan war death toll much higher than previously recorded, new study finds

Researchers estimate 60,000 deaths in Khartoum state in war’s first 14 months, far higher than other assessments.

The number of people dying due to the war in Sudan is likely far higher than previous estimates, according to a new study.

Released on Wednesday by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s Sudan Research Group, the report estimates that more than 60,000 people have died in the Khartoum region alone during the first 14 months of the war.

The study found that 26,000 people have died as a direct result of the violence and noted that starvation and disease are increasingly becoming the leading causes of death reported across Sudan.

Abdulazim Awadalla, programme manager at the Sudanese American Physicians Association, said the estimate appears credible.

“The number might even be higher,” he said, noting that malnutrition had weakened immunity, making people more vulnerable to infections. “Simple diseases are killing people.”