Hundreds of thousands of displaced people live in catastrophic humanitarian conditions in Zamzam camp in Darfur (Al Jazeera)

El Fasher -

After 20 years he spent in the “Al-Salam” camp for displaced people in North Darfur state, western Sudan, Adam Jumaa stares at the horizon with sadness and regret, and hopes that his suffering with the ongoing fighting in the country will end, and that he will regain his health and live a normal life in the Zamzam camp for the displaced, to which he arrived. Recently.

But the man feels despair as the fighting and destruction continue across Sudan, and with the complex circumstances surrounding him on every side in the camp.

Jumaa lived through harsh experiences over the past two decades, as he faced hunger, thirst, and lack of basic services in Al Salam camp.

He hoped to return to his original village thanks to the peace agreement signed between the transitional government and the armed struggle movements in Juba, South Sudan.

New battles soon broke out between the army and the Rapid Support Forces in mid-April, dashing his hopes of returning and achieving a safe and stable life.

Repeated displacement

Jumaa fled with his family last week from Al-Salam camp to Zamzam camp, escaping the intensity of the fighting.

He describes his feelings of despair and disappointment, as his dreams of living in peace and enjoying basic rights such as food, water and health faded.

His tragedy reflects what hundreds of thousands of displaced people are facing in the Al-Salam camp, who fled their homes during the past weeks to the Zamzam camp, which is considered safer, but they faced difficult and complex circumstances.

Zamzam camp is located 15 kilometers south of the city of El Fasher, and provides shelter for more than half a million displaced people, most of whom fled their original areas in the Darfur region after the outbreak of armed conflict in 2003.

The number of displaced people has increased recently due to the tensions and confrontations taking place in the city of El Fasher, forcing many residents of the city and the peace camp to flee and settle in Zamzam camp.

The displaced suffer from a severe shortage of food, water and medicine, as the distribution of food aid has stopped since last May, which has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis.

While international humanitarian organizations call for urgent action to save the lives of the displaced in Zamzam camp.

The displaced are facing tragic conditions because international humanitarian organizations have stopped providing assistance in North Darfur (Al Jazeera)

The situation is catastrophic

Hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Zamzam camp in North Darfur state, western Sudan, are suffering from tragic humanitarian conditions that threaten the occurrence of a real famine, in light of an acute shortage of food, water and medicine.

Claire Nicolet, head of Doctors Without Borders for emergency affairs in Sudan, expressed her dissatisfaction with the conditions of the displaced.

“We estimate that at least one child dies every two hours in the camp, which means that about 13 children lose their lives every day,” she said in a statement.

She explained that children suffering from severe malnutrition could die within 3 to 6 weeks if they do not receive treatment.

Noting that nearly a quarter of the children examined suffer from acute malnutrition, and that about 40% of children between the ages of 6 months and 2 years suffer from malnutrition.

What is also worrying is that the death rate in this camp, which is the largest and oldest camp in the country, and which houses between 450,000 and 500,000 people according to estimates, reaches 2.5 deaths per 10,000 people per day.

Nicolet added, "Before the outbreak of war, the camp's residents relied heavily on international aid to obtain food, health care, and drinking water, but today they have been almost completely displaced."

She pointed out that the World Food Program has not distributed food since last May, and families have resorted to drinking swamp or river water.

Doctors Without Borders: 40% of children between 6 months and two years suffer from malnutrition in Zamzam camp (Al Jazeera)

Certificates

Hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Zamzam camp in North Darfur state, western Sudan, face extremely difficult humanitarian conditions and a severe shortage of food, water and medicine.

Musa Haroun, one of the leaders of the Native Administration, arrived in Zamzam recently, and he does not rule out the death of children due to malnutrition.

He told Al Jazeera Net, "The humanitarian conditions in the camp are witnessing a serious and unprecedented deterioration, and there are children who have died due to malnutrition, as 130,000 displaced people from the Al-Salam camp have arrived in Zamzam since the outbreak of war on April 15 last year."

He added that life in the camp "almost reaches the point of famine, as families suffer from a lack of basic food supplies."

Zainab Adam, a displaced person in Zamzam camp, says, “I fled my village because of violence and fighting. We live in narrow tents, and we do not have sufficient sources of food and water. Children suffer from malnutrition and diseases, and we do not have the means for appropriate treatment.”

Meanwhile, Ibrahim Yahya, one of those fleeing the confrontations in Al-Fasher, said, “At first we thought that the fighting would end and would not come close to the neighborhood in which we live, but after time passed, we became in the midst of clashes, and soldiers surrounded us in four-wheel-drive cars, and forced us to flee from our homes to the camp".

He stated that the conflict led to the displacement of a large number of residents from their homes, especially in the eastern and northern neighborhoods of the city.

“Most of them face difficulty in ensuring their safety with food, medicine, and housing, as they have no savings, and are distributed in schools and health facilities in El Fasher, while some of them have taken refuge in Zamzam camp, where they sleep on the ground.”

One of the former displaced people in the camp, named Abkar Adam, told an Al Jazeera Net correspondent that “international organizations and bodies stopped providing humanitarian aid to the displaced more than 4 months ago.”

He explained that they had previously received aid in the form of food, medicine and water.

The humanitarian situation in Zamzam camp is deteriorating in a dangerous and unprecedented manner (Al Jazeera)

Causes of the crisis

The reasons for these tragic conditions are due to the violent armed conflict that broke out on April 15 of last year between the Sudanese army led by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to several states in the country, especially in The Darfur region, which consists of 5 states, during which thousands were killed, millions of residents were internally displaced, and tens of thousands took refuge in neighboring countries.

Many humanitarian organizations and international bodies were working to provide aid in Zamzam camp and other camps and areas in Darfur, but their work stopped due to the intensification of the conflict in these areas.

Source: Al Jazeera