Sudan's Zamzam camp faces humanitarian catastrophe, NGO warns

Sudanese NGO Mashad reports 44 deaths and more than 106 injuries since Tuesday and warns of impending tragedy without international intervention

Displaced Sudanese children at Zamzam camp, in North Darfur, Sudan. Reuters

The situation in Sudan's largest displacement site, Zamzam camp, has worsened significantly over the past two days after two salvos of shelling since Sunday killed dozens of people, piling misery on the camp's displaced residents and damaging its humanitarian infrastructure.

Ahmed Abdallah Ismail, the head of Mashad, a Sudanese NGO that provides relief supplies to displaced people inside the camp, described the situation after the latest round of shelling as "nothing short of catastrophic".

"The situation in North Darfur, especially in Zamzam camp, has been catastrophic for more than a year, but the situation has been much worse after the continued shelling of civilians by the Rapid Support Forces since yesterday," Mr Ismail told The National on Wednesday, "The strikes have not ceased since Sunday until this very moment. It is absolute chaos!"

Mashad's teams have recorded 44 deaths since Tuesday morning, 14 of whom were children, Ismail said, adding that more than 106 had been reported injured in the same period. The UN and Doctors without Borders (MSF) have condemned the shelling, but provided more modest death tolls.

A woman and baby at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to El Fasher in North Darfur in January. Reuters

"Because of the severe difficulties humanitarian workers face when operating inside Zamzam, the death tolls that are reported in the media are always a much smaller fraction of the real number," Mr Ismail said.

Sudan's civil war began in April 2023 when the agreements between the leaders of the Sudanese army and paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces fell apart over their role in a transition to a democratic Sudan after the the ousting of the country's long-time dictator Omar Al Bashir.

Because Zamzam camp is in Darfur, the heartland of the RSF's power base, many of Mashad's workers are displaced residents of the camp who risk their lives to provide relief away from the prying eyes of the group's patrollers.

The militia's fighters regularly issue death threats to humanitarian workers and forcefully suppress the release of a great deal of information about the situation inside Zamzam, Mr Ismail said.

"Today, while our teams were counting the dead, six of our volunteers were arrested and brought before RSF officers. They were all shot within minutes of arriving. This happened earlier today. This should be sufficient enough to describe how difficult it is to bring reliable information on death tolls, health issues and famine out of Darfour," Mr Ismail said.

The UN's resident co-ordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, issued a statement denouncing the strikes, in which at least five people died and 18 were injured.

“Civilians and civilian infrastructure are protected under international humanitarian law and should never be a target,” Ms Nkweta-Salami said on Tuesday.

The camp first came under shelling by the RSF on Sunday evening with another round of strikes taking place on Monday morning, MSF said. The NGO's main facility in Zamzam was evacuated in the strikes.

“The attack has created a living nightmare for the displaced people in Zamzam camp, with casualties, panic and mass displacement,” the NGO said, reporting that it had received eight injured people on Sunday, including women and children as young as four years old, with severe injuries such as chest trauma and fractures.

The RSF denied accusations that it was behind the attacks in remarks made to Reuters, blaming the latest round of shelling on the army and accusing the army-aligned Joint Forces fighters of operating within the camp and using civilians as human shields.

The latest shelling comes almost two weeks after the World Food Programme announced a “breakthrough” in aid deliveries to Zamzam, where conditions had been worsening since August amid an aid blockade by both sides of the civil war.

Part of a 700-lorry convoy, distributing enough food to feed 1.5 million people for a month across Sudan, arrived in Zamzam camp late last month, after making a 1,400km journey from Port Sudan, the WFP said.

The lorries' arrival provided a critical lifeline to the isolated camp's residents, who have been forced to eat paste made from crushed peanut shells, typically used as animal feed, due to the severe lack of food caused by the continuing conflict and restricted access for aid organisations by the RSF.

However, since the latest round of shelling, the supplies remain largely undistributed and there is a risk that they will not benefit Darfur's hungry civilian populace if access to them is not made safer. Mr Ismail said this was only possible through international pressure on the RSF at the UN Security Council not to attack civilians and to allow humanitarian efforts to continue unhindered.

"After so many long months of hunger and disease, it is difficult to describe how happy all the camp's residents were when they were told the food convoy was on its way. But then, when it arrived, it was only being distributed in areas under direct RSF control, so many civilians did not dare venture there," Mr Ismail said, adding that this has stoked worries among NGOs that the World Food Programme and other relief organisations insist on delivering aid to RSF-controlled territory with political intent.

"If the UN Security Council does not use all its mechanisms to pressure the Rapid Support Forces to stop, a great tragedy will happen in the coming days."

The camp is south of El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur province which has witnessed some of the fiercest battles in the continuing civil war raging between the country’s army and a coalition of rebel militias, known as the RSF, since April last year.

The war has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people and caused the displacement of more than 11 million internally and 3.1 million sheltering beyond its borders according to the International Organisation for Migration IOM.

Displaced Sudanese people sit at Zamzam camp, in North Darfur, Sudan. Reuters

Zamzam camp, home to more than half a million displaced people, had already been struggling with a months-long siege, leading to severe shortages of critical humanitarian supplies, the UN said on Monday.

In August 2024, UN food security experts declared a famine in the camp, making it the only location globally where famine has been declared this year.

“It is now 232 days since the siege of El Fasher began, which has resulted in unacceptable levels of human suffering,” said Ms Nkweta-Salami, emphasising that civilian protections are paramount as the civil war rages on.

The WFP has urged all armed groups to consistently grant safe passage for food aid to reach the camp. Alex Marianelli, WFP's operations deputy country director in Sudan, stressed: “We have the food. We have the trucks. We have the staff on board to ensure this aid gets there. Now, we need all warring parties and armed groups to allow this vital food and nutrition to arrive safely.”

Mashad's leadership, based in Paris, is also campaigning for the establishment of a demilitarised zone in Darfour where food and medical care can be provided freely without the always imminent risk of strikes.

"It is important that the RSF halt this strategy it has of displacing civilians and making them contend with the unknown. This is a crime against humanity and is no less dangerous than the more aggressive human rights violations perpetrated by the militia. Humanitarian relief should not be politicised and the suffering of innocent civilians should not be used to affect the outcome of the war," Ismail said.

Humanitarian corridors have thus far been a political bargaining chip for both sides of the civil war, with each faction controlling different entry points into Sudan. The warring parties have been reluctant to allow aid to pass through the areas under their control.