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Arab News
12-05-2025
- Health
- Arab News
‘Barefoot with nothing': War-displaced Sudanese go hungry in refuge town
TAWILA: Crouching over a small wood-scrap fire in Sudan's war-battered Darfur region, Aziza Ismail Idris stirs a pot of watery porridge — the only food her family have had for days. 'No organization has come. No water, no food — not even a biscuit for the children,' Idris told AFP, her voice brittle with fatigue. Having fled a brutal paramilitary attack last month on Zamzam, once one of Sudan's largest displacement camps, she and her five children are among the estimated 300,000 people who have since arrived in the small farming town of Tawila, according to the United Nations. 'We arrived here barefoot with nothing,' she said, recalling her escape from Zamzam camp, about a 60-kilometer (37-mile) desert trek away, also in the vast western region of Darfur. The few aid organizations on the ground lack the means to meet the urgent needs of so many displaced people. 'Humanitarian organizations were simply not prepared to receive this scale of displacement,' said Thibault Fendler, who works with medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Tawila. Since war broke out in April 2023 between Sudan's army and rival paramilitaries, the town has received waves of displaced people fleeing violence elsewhere. 'We are working to scale up our capacities, but the needs are simply enormous,' Fendler told AFP. Tawila, nestled between mountains and seasonal farmland, was once a quiet rural outpost. But the two-year war pitting the army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has buffeted the already-scarred Darfur region. Entire displacement camps have been besieged and razed, while the armed group that controls the area around Tawila — a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Abdelwahid Al-Nur — has vowed to protect those fleeing the violence. The town's schools, mosques and markets are crammed with people sleeping side by side, on concrete floors, under trees or in huts of straw and plastic, exposed to temperatures that can reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). Beyond the town center, a patchwork of makeshift shelters fans out across the horizon. Inside, families keep what little they managed to bring with them: worn bags, cooking pots or clothes folded carefully on mats laid over dry earth. Some weary children play silently in the dirt — many malnourished, some dressed in oversized hand-me-downs, others in the clothes they had fled in. Nearby, dozens of women line up with empty jerrycans, waiting by a lone water tank. More queues snake around soup kitchens, with women carrying pots in hand and children on their hips, hoping to get a meal before they run out. 'When we arrived, the thirst had nearly killed us, we had nothing,' said Hawaa Hassan Mohamed, a mother who fled from North Darfur's besieged state capital of El-Fasher. 'People shared what little they had,' she told AFP. The war has created the world's largest hunger crisis, with famine already declared in several parts of North Darfur state where the UN estimates that more than a million people are on the brink of starvation. The RSF and the army continue to battle for control of territory, particularly in and around El-Fasher — the last army stronghold in Darfur — crippling humanitarian access. 'It takes a long time to get aid here. The roads are full of checkpoints. Some are completely cut off,' Noah Taylor, head of operations for the Norwegian Refugee Council, told AFP from Tawila. 'There are so many gaps in every sector, from food to shelter to sanitation. The financial and in-kind resources we have are simply not sufficient,' he said. Organizations are scrambling to get food, clean water and health assistance to desperate families, but Taylor said these efforts are just scratching the surface. 'We are not there yet in terms of what people need,' he said. 'We're doing what we can, but the global response has not kept pace with the scale of this disaster.' Leni Kinzli, head of communications at the World Food Programme, said that a one-time delivery of '1,600 metric tons of food and nutrition supplies' for 335,000 people had reached Tawila last month. But it took two weeks to reach the town, navigating multiple checkpoints and unsafe roads, she told AFP. Aid workers warn that without urgent funding and secure access, these deliveries will even be harder, especially with the rainy season approaching.
Asharq Al-Awsat
12-05-2025
- General
- Asharq Al-Awsat
UN: Situation in West Darfur ‘Catastrophic'
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan (OCHA) said on Sunday there is a 'massive' need for humanitarian assistance in North Darfur, adding that situation in the Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps is catastrophic. 'Civilians are trapped. Aid cannot reach those who need it most,' the office said on its X account, adding that displaced people in the Tawila camp are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Meanwhile, Salwa Abdullah, a Darfur resident, told Asharq Al-Awsat on Sunday that she buried her five children in the Darfur desert, with no sign to locate their graves if she ever came back to visit them. 'How can I survive without them,' she said. Salwa dug their graves with the help of her father, during their journey from al-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, to the relatively safe town of Tawila. Speaking on the phone while crying, she said, 'I tried to get them to a safe area, away from shells and bullets. I didn't imagine they will die of thirst and then buried in a vast desert with no sign to mark their graves, only small sand hills that will disappear from wind and rain.' Salwa's oldest child was 13. She said she watched her five children struggle to death one by one, after they spent several days on the road to Tawila, located some 65 kilometers from al-Fasher, the last major city controlled by the Sudanese Army in the Darfur region, which has been besieged by the Rapid Support Forces for the past year. 'In just two days I lost two daughters and three sons, and shortly before, I lost my husband. I still ignore if he is alive or dead. Even if I find him how can I tell him that his five children are dead,' said Salwa, who is in her forties. 'I cried a lot hoping my tears will wake them up from their coma. I can't describe my feelings back then. I wished I was dead instead.' Salaw, who is pregnant, said the family left al-Fasher on foot carrying water bottles. 'But due to high temperatures during the daytime hours, the water ran out on the third day,' she explained. The grieved mother has now reached the Tawila town to join thousands of other families that were displaced from al-Fasher due to fighting between the Army and the RSF. 'Many families lost their children on their journey to Tawila, currently controlled by the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdul Wahid al Nur,' said Adam Rijal, spokesman for the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees. 'The displaced are living in dire humanitarian conditions and need basic necessities such as food, drinking water and shelter,' he said.
Zawya
06-05-2025
- General
- Zawya
People fleeing Zamzam camp arrive to overwhelmed humanitarian response in Tawila
Three weeks on from the large-scale ground offensive by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Zamzam camp, Sudan, in early April 2025, reports of intensified fighting in El-Fasher continue, and more displaced people are arriving in Tawila, North Darfur state. People have been arriving in Tawila in a vulnerable state; many are suffering from malnutrition, and others were injured during the attack on Zamzam camp. Médecins Sans Frontières' (MSF's) emergency and nutrition service at the hospital in Tawila has been overwhelmed. 'They came with their machine guns. They attacked and killed people – including children. They burnt our house, with everything we had inside. They raped the women. They killed, they looted,' says Mariam*, who reached Tawila three days after the attack on Zamzam took place. 'Even before the attack, people had died of thirst and of starvation because of the siege that had been imposed on Zamzam for the past year. Everything was so expensive and so unaffordable in the end.' Mariam* arrived with her mother, her sisters and their children- a household of 20 people. All of them now spend their days squeezed against each other under the makeshift shelter they built with a few branches and a piece of fabric. 'Here, there is no food. A few people in Tawila shared a bit of millet flour with us, which we used to make porridge. This is how we have survived so far: begging,' she says. 'We get the water from a tank, but they only let us fill one jerrycan per family, and we are 20 in ours. We only have one blanket for all of us.' Since 12 April, when people first began reaching Tawila from Zamzam, the areas surrounding the town have been completely transformed, with tens of thousands of people now estimated to be living in makeshift shelters in fields that were totally uninhabited just a few weeks ago. 'For four days now, we have been staying here as you see us, with nothing: no walls, no roof,' says Ibrahim*, who fled Zamzam on foot with 11 of his family members. He carried one of his children on his shoulders and another on his back for five days. It's the fourth time in ten years he has been displaced in similar circumstances. He described how soldiers entered people's homes, brought them outside and opened fire. Three of his brothers were killed like this. On his way to Tawila, he got looted and witnessed people being beaten so harshly that they could no longer move. 'Under this tree, it is so crowded, we're lacking water, or shelter… there is nothing to eat, everyone is hungry,' he says. 'We're getting some food from the community kitchens. Sometimes, we manage to get some rice when they distribute the meals, but if we don't, we must wait until the next day to eat something. For water, we go to a borehole, but there are so many people, and we have to wait hours to be able to drink.' A handful of organisations are present in Tawila, but the number of people in need of assistance far exceed the capacity to respond. MSF teams have set up two health posts at the main arrival sites to provide the newcomers with water and immediate nutrition and medical support. We are also referring critical patients to Tawila local hospital, where MSF has been working since October 2024. Tiphaine Salmon, MSF's head nurse, was working in the Tawila hospital on 12 April, the day people began arriving with serious injuries. 'The emergency room was overwhelmed," she says. 'Over the first few days, the number of patients in the hospital almost doubled. At one point, we had four patients in a bed because we did not have enough space.' 'A lot of people had gunshot wounds and blast injuries - we've treated 779 people over the past three weeks, including 138 children. 187 of all the patients were severe cases,' says Salmon. 'The youngest I saw was a seven-month-old baby with a bullet wound that went under his chin and into his shoulder. We also received patients as young as one day old suffering from dehydration. Many children arrived without their parents – and many parents were searching desperately for their children.' Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Médecins sans frontières (MSF).
Reuters
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Violence engulfs besieged Zamzam camp in Sudan's Darfur region
Graphics Mediterranean Sea EGYPT Nile LIBYA SAUDI ARABIA Port Sudan NORTH DARFUR Red Sea SUDAN Khartoum CHAD YEMEN al-Fashir Tawila Sudanese Armed Forces Zamzam IDP camp Rapid Support Forces (RSF) ETHIOPIA SOUTH SUDAN The conflict in Sudan that erupted two years ago has unleashed waves of ethnic violence, created the world's worst humanitarian crisis, and plunged several areas of the country into famine. In April, the fighting between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) spilled into one of the largest encampments for people displaced by years of warfare: the vast Zamzam camp in Sudan's western region of Darfur, home to around half a million people. Witnesses described the moment RSF men poured into Zamzam displacement camp on April 11, looting and burning homes as shells rained down and drones flew overhead. The RSF seized the massive camp in April following days of shelling, drone attacks and ground assaults that the United Nations says left at least 300 people dead and forced around 400,000 to flee, one of the worst violations since the war began. The capture of Zamzam comes as the RSF tries to consolidate its control over the Darfur region. The camp is near the city of al-Fashir, home to 1.8 million people and the last significant holdout from the RSF in Darfur. The RSF did not respond to a request for comment. It has denied accusations of atrocities and said the camp was being used as a base by forces loyal to the army. Humanitarian groups have denounced the raid as a targeted attack on civilians already facing famine. Caught between opposing forces The Sudanese army and RSF had been in a fragile partnership since staging a coup in October 2021, which derailed a transition to democracy after the ouster of Islamist autocrat Omar al-Bashir two years previously. The two sides clashed over an internationally backed plan that would have launched a new transition with civilian parties and required the army and the RSF to cede powers. Specific points of dispute were the timetable for the RSF to be integrated into the regular armed forces, the chain of command between the army and RSF leaders, and the question of civilian oversight. The warring parties had also been in competition over sprawling business interests, which they were seeking to protect. Victory in the nearby city of al-Fashir would boost the RSF's efforts to establish a parallel government in the western regions of Sudan it controls. Elsewhere, the army has been on the upswing lately, retaking control of the capital Khartoum in March. Satellite images showed widespread fire damage across the camp consistent with accounts from witnesses who said RSF fighters had set buildings in the camp on fire to sow terror. Reuters could not independently verify those witness reports. RSF has denied them. SUDAN Zamzam To al-Fashir Camp residents flee to Tawila ZAMZAM IDP camp Smoke Market Fire damage observed To other places Before launching its attack, the RSF had been besieging the area and aid had been cut off for months from reaching the sprawling camp. The camp has expanded during more than 20 years of sporadic conflict in Sudan to shelter nearly 500,000 predominantly non-Arab people, reflecting the enduring humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Reuters has documented allegations of ethnically targeted violence by Arab paramilitary commanders in Darfur against the ethnic-African Masalit tribe during the current conflict. SUDAN Zamzam 2005 2013 2024 Housing ZAMZAM IDP camp In an August 2024 report, the U.N.-backed Famine Review Committee found that famine - which is confirmed when acute malnutrition and mortality criteria are met - was ongoing in Zamzam camp. The committee reported: 'Restrictions on humanitarian access, including intentional impediments imposed by the active parties to the conflict, have severely restricted the capability of aid organisations to scale up their response efforts effectively.' 'Basic human needs for health services, water, food, nutrition, shelter and protection are not being met.' Aid workers say the army has obstructed humanitarian access during the war while the RSF has looted large quantities of aid that has got through. Both sides deny impeding relief efforts. Flooding last year swamped water points in the camp, raising the risk of cholera and other diseases in an area already facing extreme levels of malnutrition. Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian organization that provides care in conflict zones, estimated in February 2024 that an estimated one child was dying on average every two hours in Zamzam as a result of disease and malnutrition. People displaced 150,300 al-Fashir 180,935 Zamzam IDP Camp Tawila 790 SUDAN Other places al-Fashir 10 km Map showing number of people displaced from Zamzam IDP camp – 150,300 to al-Fashir, 180,935 to Tawila and 790 to other places. According to a report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the camp has been 'nearly emptied' since intense shelling and ground attacks began around April 10. The International Organization for Migration reported that as of April 17 more than 300,000 people had been displaced to other areas within North Darfur and Central Darfur. The majority had fled to either Tawila or al-Fashir. In recent weeks, the RSF has continued to besiege al-Fashir. On May 1, U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said the 'horror unfolding in Sudan knows no bounds' and said there was an 'ominous warning by the RSF of 'bloodshed' ahead of imminent battles with the Sudanese Armed Forces.' 'Everything must be done to protect civilians trapped amid dire conditions in and around [al- Fashir],' he said. In March, Sudan accused the United Arab Emirates of violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention by allegedly arming the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to impose emergency measures ordering the Emirates to prevent genocidal acts in Darfur. The UAE has repeatedly dismissed the filing of the case as a political game and has argued that the ICJ, also known as the World Court, has no legal power to hear Sudan's claim. It has asked the judges to throw out the case. Major events during the conflict in Sudan
