Flooding at famine-struck camp in Sudan
Famine declaration for Zamzam Camp is "tip of the iceberg"
Heavy rains have caused widespread flooding at Zamzam Camp in El Fasher, North Darfur, raising the risk of cholera, dengue, and other waterborne diseases.
The floods add to the suffering of war victims who have already endured months of hunger and privation as a result of a siege of El Fasher by the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary formed out of the “Janjaweed” militias that perpetrated a genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s, which are again on the warpath.
Latrines, water wells, markets, shelters and healthcare facilities have flooded in Zamzam Camp, as well as shelters belonging to the war-displaced people, according to a report by the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health.
The flooding “likely has caused animal and human fecal contamination of water supplies,” the report states. Using satellite images, the research group identified nearly a square kilometer of standing floodwater in Zamzam Camp alone, equivalent to approximately 125 FIFA football pitches.
Located approximately 12 kilometers south of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, Zamzam is one of the largest displaced camps in Sudan, with an estimated population of at least 500,000. The camp has a mixed population, including some long-time residents who lived there since the last Sudanese civil war, farmers who fled to the camp after 43 villages were burned in arson attacks near El Fasher earlier this year, and city dwellers from El Fasher itself who fled fighting and shelling in recent months.
The Yale Humanitarian Research Lab notes that crowded conditions in Zamzam and other areas raises the risks associated with flooding: “Conflict-related displacement causes high-density civilian gatherings in relatively small areas. Even in the dry season and without flooding, the phenomenon of displaced people clustering together in search of safety and shelter increases the chance of waterborne disease.”
Disease outbreaks generally are more lethal when they spread through malnourished populations, especially when there are no medicines or doctors to treat the most severely affected. According to Doctors Without Borders, the Rapid Support Forces are blocking medical supplies from entering El Fasher, resulting in more deaths due to both disease and war wounds. The aid group said yesterday,
“As casualty numbers rise, [medical] supplies are running out. Our trucks have been on the road for more than six weeks and should have reached El Fasher by now, but the RSF have held them in Kabkabiya for four weeks. This blockade is going to cost lives—facilities will soon face stockouts.”
The Yale researchers stressed, “The flooding heightens the urgent need for humanitarian organizations to freely access displaced and besieged communities.”
Food security experts with the Famine Early Warning System and the IPC’s Famine Review Committee declared yesterday that famine conditions are prevalent in Zamzam Camp and likely also in Abu Shouk and Al Salam camps and other areas of El Fasher. They warned that famine conditions could persist until October.
Humanitarians and camp leaders have warned of deepening hunger in Zamzam and other parts of Darfur for at least six months, but this is the first time that the IPC—the most widely recognized international authority that makes “official” famine declarations—has officially acknowledged the emergence of a famine in Sudan.
Zamzam Camp depended on food assistance from the World Food Programme since before the current civil war, but that aid is now cut off. The last food distribution in the camp was in April 2024, reaching less than five percent of the population.
A small amount of food still reaches Zamzam via commercial routes, which are partly though not entirely crippled in conflict-affected North Darfur State. The IPC Famine Review Committee noted in its report,
“Markets are currently the main, if not only source of food for IDPs in Zamzam. The main market and informal vendors in Zamzam camp purportedly carry a small variety of food commodities, especially asida (sorghum porridge), bread and local vegetables, as well as oil and sugar. Commercial deliveries are arriving at Zamzam camp likely from Chad.”
Prices in the camp have risen 63% for cooking oil, 190% for sugar, 67% for millet and 75% for rice, according to the 47-page IPC report.
Some Zamzam Camps have fled to other parts of Darfur, including the Jebel Marra region, which is controlled by a neutral armed group, as well as Nyala, a city controlled by the RSF which is more peaceful at the moment. However, high transportation costs and security concerns (especially for “specific ethnic groups”) are hampering the movement out of the famine-hit camp, according to the IPC report.
Starvation deaths are a type of secondary conflict casualty. Starvation and disease caused the majority of deaths during the Darfur genocide in the early 2000s. After the initial massacres in the villages, displaced rural populations of Darfur fled to Chad and big cities of Sudan, where they suffered years of deprivation. They could not return to their farms and had lost grains stores, seeds, livestock, and other means of survival.
In the absence of a ceasefire, fighting is expected to continue in El Fasher, potentially limiting food supplies to a trickle. Thousands of people have suffered injuries due to shelling and crossfire in El Fasher since April, at least 600 people have died (not including combatants), and some parts of the city were burned.
Militarily, El Fasher is significant because it is the last stronghold of the Sudanese military in the Darfur region, as well as the headquarters of a “Joint Force” consisting of former rebel groups now allied with the military.
Politically, El Fasher is recognized as the foremost of the Darfur region’s five state capitals. Its name comes from a word used to describe the palace complex of the once independent Darfur Sultanate. The city therefore has important value as a symbol of power and rule in Darfur, a region approximately the same size as Spain.
Darfur is not the only part of Sudan suffering hunger and flooding. The rainy season has brought outbreaks of diarrhea and malaria to other areas too, such as Gedaref and West Kordofan. Citing a local civilian source, Radio Dabanga reports that there are shortages of food, medicine, blankets, mosquito nets, and tarps in Al-Udayya, Kajira, and Meiram localities of West Kordofan.
Mercy Corps, an aid agency, says the famine declaration for Zamzam camp “is merely the tip of the iceberg.” Barrett Alexander, Mercy Corps Director of Programs for Sudan, said data from other regions is also alarming: “A recent assessment by Mercy Corps' team in Central and South Darfur revealed that nine out of ten children, particularly those under five, are suffering from life-threatening malnutrition.”
“Drawing from our experience with previous famines, we know that widespread deaths have already occurred by the time a famine is officially declared. Unfortunately, the politics surrounding famine declarations are fundamentally flawed. While debates continue over the criteria for declaring a famine, people are dying of starvation. We cannot afford to wait for more data or formal declarations as the specter of starvation looms over millions of Sudanese lives.”
Further reading
Other news in brief
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