Karnoi, January 19 (Darfur24)
Volunteers in North Darfur’s emergency rooms reported that hundreds of residents remain trapped in valleys and surrounding villages near Karnoi and Ambro, following intense fighting over the past ten days between the Sudanese army and its allies on one side, and the Rapid Support Forces and their allies on the other.
A volunteer in Karnoi told Darfur24 that the Karnoi Emergency Room distributed around 200 food baskets last Thursday to families sheltering in Wadi Qardi and Um Saad, where large numbers of residents had fled from Karnoi, Ambro, Furawiya, and nearby areas.
He said urgent needs remain for food, drinking water, and medicines, warning that the displacement situation in the valleys requires immediate solutions, particularly with winter approaching.
Haroun Khater, a community leader in North Darfur, told Darfur24 that many residents chose to flee into valleys and remote areas due to fears of armed robbery on roads leading to refugee camps in Chad.
He added that residents suffered casualties, injuries, and widespread livestock losses during their escape from Karnoi and Ambro, pushing remaining families toward waterways amid a critical shortage of food, medicine, and safe drinking water.
Khater revealed that local administrations have launched an initiative to seek a temporary truce between the warring parties to open safe routes for displaced civilians to reach safer areas without harm.
The areas of Jarjira, Andro, and Ad Al-Khair, in northwestern Darfur near the Chadian border, have witnessed heavy fighting for more than ten days.
Karnoi, Ambro, and the border town of Al-Tina remain among the last strongholds of the Sudanese army and allied joint forces in Darfur, after the Rapid Support Forces and allied groups took control of most major cities in the region, including Al-Fasher last October.