Humanitarian groups are warning of escalating violence in a famine-hit camp near North Darfur’s besieged capital, El-Fasher, amid the ongoing war between the army and paramilitaries.
Zamzam camp, which the United Nations says hosts over 500,000 people, was officially declared famine-hit last August.
French charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Thursday that injured civilians have been arriving at its hospital in the camp since Tuesday, but staff are unable to treat them due to a lack of “surgical capacities”.
“We can just stabilise them,” Marion Ramstein, MSF project coordinator for North Darfur, told AFP.
Reaching the nearest fully equipped hospital – the Saudi Hospital in El-Fasher – has become nearly impossible due to heavy fighting, according to MSF.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been locked in a brutal conflict between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
In recent weeks, the RSF has intensified attacks on El-Fasher, which has been under RSF siege since last May and is the last city in the western region of Darfur still under army control.
The paramilitary group has shelled famine-stricken displacement camps and battled army-allied militias.
On Wednesday, MSF reported heavy clashes between RSF fighters and army-aligned Joint Forces inside Zamzam, warning that “hundreds of thousands of people” are at risk.
The same day, its hospital in the camp received 17 wounded patients, following 23 cases the previous day. At last seven people died upon arrival, MSF said on X.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF on Wednesday also warned of a worsening crisis in Zamzam, saying “hundreds of thousands of children are at risk” as fighting escalates.
Meanwhile, Sudan’s army-aligned government condemned RSF attacks on displacement camps in Darfur, including Zamzam, describing them as a “blatant violation of human rights”.
North Darfur alone has 1.7 displaced people with two million facing extreme food insecurity, according to the UN.
Late last year, famine spread to two other displacement camps in El-Fasher – Abu Shouk and Al-Salam – and is expected to grip five more areas by May.
