MSF halts work at Sudan's famine-hit Zamzam camp as heavy fighting takes its toll

Charity suspends activities 'despite widespread starvation and immense humanitarian needs'

A displaced Sudanese woman rests in a shelter at Zamzam camp, in North Darfur, Sudan. Reuters

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) suspended all activities at the Zamzam displacement camp in Sudan's North Darfur region on Monday because of escalation in fighting, despite the scourge of famine throughout the area, the NGO said.

It said it would continue to look for every opportunity to help people without exposing its staff to unacceptable levels of risk and urged all armed actors in the area to protect civilians.

The Darfur region has witnessed more than 20 years of almost continuous war, often along ethnic lines, starting with fighting between a militia called the Janjaweed and non-Arab rebel groups. Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – which stemmed from the Janjaweed – is now battling the Sudanese Armed Forces in the region, with both sides accused of committing atrocities since the civil war broke out in 2023.

"The current escalation of attacks and fighting in and around Zamzam camp for displaced people ... is making it impossible for MSF to continue providing medical assistance in such dangerous conditions," the charity said in a statement.

The organisation said it has been forced into making "the difficult decision" over Zamzam, which hosts about 500,000 people seeking safety from the war. "Despite widespread starvation and immense humanitarian needs, we have no choice but to suspend all our activities in the camp, including the MSF field hospital," it said.

MSF teams have this month treated 139 patients with gunshot and shrapnel wounds at the field hospital, it said, amid clashes between the army and the RSF.

Eleven patients have died, five of them children, because "we could neither treat them properly nor refer them to Saudi Hospital, the only facility with surgical capacity in nearby El Fasher,” said Yahya Kalilah, MSF’s head of mission in Sudan.

“In January and December, two of our ambulances carrying patients from the camp to El Fasher were shot at. Now it's even more dangerous and as a result, many people, including patients requiring trauma surgery or emergency Caesarean section, are trapped in Zamzam.”

Earlier this month, the RSF stormed Zamzam, open since 2004, triggering clashes with the Sudanese army and its allied militias.

The International Organisation for Migration said since February 11, the violence has displaced 10,000 families from the camp, just south of North Darfur state capital El Fasher – the only state capital in the vast western region of Darfur that the RSF has not captured in its war with the Sudanese army.

Beyond the camp, a further "1,544 households were displaced from various villages" near El Fasher, the IOM said.

Before the most recent attacks, 1.7 million displaced people were in North Darfur alone, with two million facing extreme food insecurity, the UN said.

- With reporting from agencies