Sudan Events – Agencies
The spokesperson for the displaced persons at Zamzam Camp in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State in western Sudan, has warned of worsening humanitarian conditions due to severe shortages of food and medicine. He called on international agencies to urgently intervene with aerial food drops to save over a million people at risk of starvation.
This statement follows the World Food Programme’s (WFP) announcement of aid convoys reaching the overcrowded camp for the first time since August.
Fighting around El Fasher, coupled with road damage during the rainy season from June to September, had disrupted food aid deliveries for months.
Dire Humanitarian Situation
Mohamed Khamis Doudah, the spokesperson for Zamzam Camp, told Al Jazeera Net:
“Humanitarian conditions in Zamzam Camp have significantly worsened in recent days due to the ongoing siege imposed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has prevented the entry of food and medical supplies.”
He revealed that 47 shelters house displaced persons from El Fasher and surrounding villages, who are enduring extremely dire conditions due to the lack of aid.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has set up kitchens providing two meals daily in eight shelters. However, Doudah confirmed that “most displaced persons are facing imminent starvation.”
He added that approximately 1.5 million displaced persons urgently need international and central government intervention. He proposed aerial food and medicine drops as a solution.
Doudah accused the RSF of tightening the siege on Zamzam Camp and confiscating goods entering the camp. He noted that sugar prices had risen to 2,500 Sudanese pounds per pound, with meat costing 7,000–8,000 pounds (roughly $3) per kilogram. He also highlighted a severe cash shortage exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.
Regarding the WFP convoy, Doudah reported being notified by Doctors Without Borders that the organization planned to send 1,000 tons of aid to the camp. However, the food trucks that arrived only carried nutritional biscuits for malnourished children.
Food Security
In early August, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)—a coalition of partners including UN agencies—reported famine in Zamzam Camp, which shelters approximately half a million displaced persons.
According to a WFP statement issued Saturday, over 700 food aid trucks have been dispatched to communities across Sudan, including 14 “hotspots” identified as facing severe food insecurity and famine risk.
Aid shipments from Port Sudan in the east have reached Zamzam Camp in Darfur and other hunger-stricken areas in South Kordofan. Other convoys have moved from Adré in Chad to Zamzam Camp, with the first food aid convoy arriving at the camp on Saturday. Additional convoys are en route to other hard-to-reach regions.
Overall, the trucks are expected to deliver around 17,500 tons of food aid, sufficient to feed 1.5 million people for one month.
Since September, the WFP has provided food aid to an average of 2 million people monthly across Sudan. The country now accounts for half of the world’s population facing catastrophic hunger levels classified as IPC Phase 5.
Widespread Malnutrition
According to the UN, an estimated 4.7 million Sudanese children under five, along with pregnant and lactating women, suffer from acute malnutrition.
Source: Al Jazeera Net
