Research groups warn of flooding due to heavy rains in the displaced persons camp
4 (EUROPA PRESS)
The Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have blamed each other for the dire situation in Zamzam camp for displaced persons in North Darfur, where 400,000 people are now officially facing famine.
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.”
Sudan’s Foreign Ministry, an agency in effect serving the country’s military, has accused the RSF of “spreading hunger in Zamzam camp as part of its strategy of widespread starvation,” according to a statement reported by the Sudan Tribune.
RSF responded with a lengthy statement posted on its X social media account, in which it deplored “a humanitarian crisis exacerbated by the blatant use of hunger as a tool of terror by the Sudanese Armed Forces,” which it accused of “obstructing the arrival of humanitarian aid to Darfur and other parts of the country.”
As on other occasions, the RSF assures that it remains “committed to the idea of ​​facilitating the arrival of aid” and insists on the creation of a “supreme joint mechanism” with the United Nations to facilitate this task.
“We call on the United Nations and its agencies to fulfil their moral and ethical responsibility and expedite the rescue of millions of starving Sudanese,” the group added, adding that it had already recommended the use of several crossings under its control “to ensure the rapid and unhindered flow of humanitarian aid to those in urgent need.”
“We renew our proposal to appoint a United Nations humanitarian coordinator” in these territories under RSF control — even though humanitarian officials consider these places to remain extremely insecure — “to improve coordination, cooperation and communication,” the paramilitaries conclude.
FLOODS IN ZAMZAM
To make matters worse, the humanitarian research team at the Yale School of Public Health has been able to verify through satellite images that the Zamzam camp is currently flooded by the heavy rains of the last few days.
Nine of the 13 drinking water distribution points are now flooded, posing an imminent risk of a cholera epidemic in the country’s largest displaced persons camp.
Several latrines at Zamzam school facilities are also flooded, as is a shelter for internally displaced people, 44 of the 76 temporary shelters. There is, overall, “significant flooding throughout Zamzam IDP camp, including residential areas.”
MSF RUN OUT OF SUPPORT TO CARE FOR MALNOURING CHILDREN
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned that the situation is critical: there is only enough therapeutic food to treat malnourished children for two more weeks and it has had to limit the number of children who can receive this treatment.
MSF accuses the paramilitaries of blocking three of the organisation’s trucks in the town of Kabkabiya for more than a month. These trucks are essential for treating severely malnourished children. They could all die within three to six weeks. The ward for severely malnourished children is 126 per cent full, and many children are already in critical condition.
“MSF urges the parties to the conflict to allow humanitarian aid to cross Sudan’s borders and front lines. Deliberately obstructing or delaying the transport of aid puts the lives of thousands of children at risk, who are unable to receive vital treatment,” the NGO concludes.
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