More than 400,000 displaced in North Darfur by Sudanese war declared in famine

More than 800,000 residents of the city of El Fasher are at risk of following this path in the coming weeks if immediate help does not arrive.

Aug. 2 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Famine Research Commission (FRC) has announced that more than 400,000 residents of the Zamzan displaced persons camp in North Darfur are facing famine as a result of the devastating war that the country has been going through since April last year and, specifically, the hostilities in the Darfur region and one of its historical centres, the city of El Fasher.

El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur and the historic capital of Darfur, has been the scene of a siege operation by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces for months. The city, defended by the Sudanese army and the militias of the governor of Darfur, Minni Minawi, was until then one of the last refuges for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the conflict that broke out in April 2023.

Many of them ended up in displaced persons camps such as Zamzam, 12 kilometres south of El Fasher, which is currently the scene of a critical situation: at least one in five people suffers, according to the FRC indicator, validated by the United Nations, “extreme lack of food and faces death by starvation.”

In addition, the FRC also estimates that famine may exist in two other IDP camps in the El Fasher region, namely Abu Shuk and Al Salam, “but the limited evidence available reduces the ability to confirm or deny a classification.”

The rest of the region and its approximately 800,000 inhabitants are at risk of famine and everything seems to indicate that they will join the displaced from Zamzam in the coming weeks if the army and paramilitaries do not immediately establish a humanitarian solution. What is more, the Network of Early Warning Systems Against Famine, an organization dependent on the United States Department of Foreign Aid (USAID), warns of a domino effect that could extend to areas of Greater Darfur and parts of South Kordofan and even the capital, Khartoum.

World Food Programme Director Cindy McCain said that with this announcement, “the worst fears have come true” and added that it is still “not too late to prevent the famine from spreading to other parts of the country.”

“To save lives and prevent widespread famine in Sudan, we must be able to reach all areas where people are in need. The Sudanese people are counting on us as their lifeline after enduring unimaginable hardship since this conflict began,” he added.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks directly to a critical moment. “This official statement from the Commission confirms what we already knew: people are starving in Sudan, and have been starving in Sudan,” she said before calling once again on the warring parties to “remove barriers to aid and allow the food, water and medicine that people desperately need to flow freely across borders and conflict lines.”