December 20, Nairobi — Since the beginning of December, there has been increasing escalation of conflict across El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. This has included repeated shelling of Zamzam camp for internally displaced people, which houses approximately one million people.
In a report released on Friday the United Nations said that despite the growing severity and frequency of attacks on Zamzam, Sudan’s largest displacement camp, a lack of safe exit routes has left most civilians unable to leave and seek safety elsewhere.
The heavy presence of armed actors and the proliferation of checkpoints along key routes connecting the camp and El Fasher, which is 12km away. Attempting to leave exposes them to “significant dangers, including death, gender-based violence, particularly for women and girls, and looting by armed elements.”
Those remaining in Zamzam, where famine was confirmed in August, are suffering from dire conditions. The ongoing attacks have forced humanitarian actors to temporarily suspend or scale-down their life-saving activities.
Zamzam was first shelled on December 1 by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is trying to takeover El Fasher, the last stronghold of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Since then it has been shelled at least five more times, and at least 15 displaced people have been killed.
In Zamzam the supply roads are largely controlled by the RSF, who have been accused of restricting humanitarian access. Since mid-November there have also been concerns over the increased deployment of Joint Forces — allied with SAF — to Zamzam, as well as the alleged proliferation of weapons among IDP men.