Hawa Haroun Al-Hajj, who lives in Zamzam camp, doesn’t know how to get food for her five daughters. She ran out of supplies in the absence of humanitarian aid. Her daughters, including the youngest who is seven years old, have started begging in the markets to stay alive.
The Zamzam camp houses about half a million displaced people near North Darfur’s besieged capital, El Fasher. Last week, the United Nations stated that famine was taking place in the camp, and was expected to last until at least October.
Hawa, whose husband fled before the outbreak of the war, lives in a small empty tent except for the pile of worn-out clothes in a corner. Officials and activists in North Darfur state estimate that the number of people fleeing to Zamzam camp due to armed clashes between the warring parties in El Fasher city is in the thousands.
Hawa is not the only one suffering — many internally displaced people in Zamzam told Darfur24 about the lack of humanitarian aid and difficult living conditions, including a lack of access to basic services. In the fall, their tents are torn apart by storms and heavy rains.
Maqbula Ali Adam, a mother of six children, says that she was living on the aid provided by international relief organizations, which is no longer enough to cover food. Another, Ahmed Omar Ali, told Darfur24 that many families are now living on one meal a day, and disease is spreading, particularly among children.
Ahmed said that at least five children have died in the past three months due to malnutrition. Their families have been unable to transport them to treatment centers due to their poor living conditions.
The commissioner of displaced persons at the State Humanitarian Aid Commission, Hassan Saber, said that there are more than 45 shelter centers in Zamzam camp. Most of them are in schools and other gatherings inside the camp, in addition to the gatherings of displaced persons in Shala and Abu Jarboun, west of El Fasher.
Saber told Darfur24 that the clashes that have been taking place in El Fasher since last May have forced thousands of citizens to flee to Zamzam IDP camp. He said the conditions are dire, with malaria and diarrhea spreading, and malnutrition increasing.
Plan International Sudan called on the warring parties to attend the talks in Switzerland and agree to a ceasefire, so that humanitarian aid can reach civilians who are suffering.
It’s not just Zamzam but across the region — the General Coordination of IDPs and Refugees in Darfur announced that between 20 and 25 people die daily inside the IDP camps due to hunger. “Darfur has received only a small portion of humanitarian aid since the outbreak of the war on April 15, amid a lack of food in all IDP camps,” they said in a statement.