Aid group: Darfur attacks strand 14,000 without medical help

CAIRO (AP) — A recent surge of violence in Darfur, the war-scarred region of western Sudan, has deprived more than 14,000 children of medical care, a leading aid group reported on Thursday.

Save the Children said it was forced to close two major health facilities and its field office in the village of Masteri in west Darfur. An assault there last Saturday killed 60 civilians, including five toddlers, according to the U.N.

Hundreds of Arab militiamen shot families, stole livestock and torched hundreds of homes in the area, forcing over 10,000 to run for their lives and leaving residents in dire need of aid, according to the U.N. Save the Children said it had no choice but to close facilities that provide nutritional and health services, fearing for the safety of its staff.

“If the centers are not reopened soon, children’s lives will be put at further risk,” said Arshad Malik, the group’s Sudan director, at a time when a staggering 1.1 million children are facing severe hunger in Sudan, more than twice the amount reported last year. “This conflict can only increase the number of children in need.”

Residents of Masteri say they are stranded.

“We have no hospital, there is effectively no help, and people are terrified,” said Mustafa Younes, a senior leader of the displaced community in Masteri.

Earlier this month, on July 13, he watched dozens of militiamen on horses and camels storm the town and kill two women, one who he knew to be pregnant.

“The farms are burned and hundreds are fleeing to Chad, they are not taking anything with them," Younes said.

The episode in Masteri was just the latest in a string of at least seven attacks in the past few weeks that recalled the brutal tenure of ousted autocrat Omar al-Bashir. In the early 2000s, al-Bashir...