The Sudanese Zamzam camp, situated near the el-Fasher city, beside Darfur, has been facing a harsh famine since the start of the civil war 16 months ago caused an exodus of 500K displaced, the Famine Review Committee (FRC) stated, according to BBC.
The overpopulation in the camps erupted and ballooned in April, resulting in the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, as the Sudanese Army and Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) forced 10 Mln people to leave their homes.
It comes as US-mediated negotiations set to begin in two weeks look to be at risk.
The RSF has accepted the invitation to Geneva, but it is uncertain if the army would go following Wednesday’s suspected murder attempt on military chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
According to the most recent assessment of the IPC’s Sudan working group, 25.6 million people, or 54% of the population, are experiencing severe acute food insecurity, with 14 districts in danger of famine.
According to Fews Net, starvation may be happening in the Abu Shouk and Al Salam camps, which are located close to el-Fasher, although there is insufficient information to conclude this.
The criterion for categorizing a region as famine are that at least 20% of families are experiencing a severe scarcity of food, 30% of children are critically malnourished, and two people out of every 10,000 die each day from starvation or malnutrition and illness.
Since April, the RSF has been fighting to retake el-Fasher, the sole city remaining under military control in Darfur’s western area.
According to the FRC, over 320,000 people have evacuated the city, with between 150,000 and 200,000 going to Zamzam camp “in search of security, basic services, and food” in just a few weeks in May.
That month, the UN expert on genocide prevention stated that many people in el-Fasher were being targeted because of their ethnicity, warning of an increasing risk of genocide.
The bloodshed in Darfur resembles the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Arab Janjaweed militias on non-Arab towns two decades ago.
The primary market in Zamzam camp was now only open periodically, and prices had skyrocketed by June, up 63% for cooking oil, 190% for sugar, 67% for millet, and 75% for rice.
Barrett Alexander of the humanitarian charity Mercy Corps cautioned that the catastrophic condition shown by stories concerning el-Fasher, particularly in the Zamzam camp, was “merely the tip of the iceberg”.
“Drawing from our experience with previous famines, we know that widespread deaths have already occurred by the time a famine is officially declared.”
He went on to say that a recent Mercy Corps examination in Central and South Darfur indicated that nine out of ten children had life-threatening malnutrition.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), one of the few relief groups functioning in el-Fasher, warned that circumstances were likely to worsen if an apparent blockage on humanitarian supplies was not lifted immediately.
Both sides have been accused of impeding and plundering supplies, which they deny.
The MSF trucks are transporting therapeutic food and medical supplies for children in the Zamzam camp, as well as surgical supplies for the only operating hospital in el-Fasher.
The Saudi Hospital was shelled on Monday, killing three staff members and injuring at least 25 others – the charity said it was the 10th strike in less than three months.