Aid Group Decries Dire Security in Sudanese Camp

In North Darfur, the worsening situation around Sudan’s famine-hit Zamzam camp has reached a critical point, with all access routes blocked and security deteriorating significantly, according to an international aid worker. Due to escalating violence involving the Sudanese army and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has been forced to halt operations in the camp, which houses around half a million people.

Marion Ramstein, MSF’s project coordinator for North Darfur, expressed the severity of the situation, saying the security concerns had made continuing their work impossible. As a result, there are now very few organizations present to provide assistance in this already remote area, which Ramstein described as a “heartbreaking decision” due to the lack of alternative support for the local population. This decision comes as Sudan’s civil war, which began in April 2023, continues to devastate the country. Clashes between the military and RSF have resulted in the deaths of at least 20,000 individuals, displaced over 14 million people from their homes, and led to widespread famine in various regions.

The security concerns around Zamzam are not new for MSF. Two of its ambulances were shot at in December and January while transporting patients from the camp to El Fasher, the district’s central hub. One such incident led to the death of a woman who was accompanying her sister, prompting MSF to cease ambulance services between Zamzam and El Fasher earlier this year. While MSF remains committed to returning to the camp, it cannot resume activities with the current security risks.

Zamzam camp is currently experiencing severe famine, with an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report highlighting the extreme hunger in the area, classified as IPC Phase 5, the worst level of food insecurity. Ramstein noted alarming accounts of young children in the camp suffering from anemia. Last September, MSF conducted a screening of 29,300 children during a vaccination effort, revealing that 34% were acutely malnourished.

The camp has recently witnessed an influx of displaced families fleeing from Abu Zerega, Shagra, and Saluma. These families have shared distressing reports with MSF teams, detailing human rights abuses such as killings, sexual assaults, looting, and beatings occurring both in villages and along the roads to El Fasher. The humanitarian crisis at Zamzam camp reflects the broader challenges facing Sudan as violence and insecurity continue unabated.