Access to Elfasher and nearby camps is “restricted as far as danger is concerned.” It is estimated that up to 450,000 people are moving.
The aid organization is struggling to respond to the deepening humanitarian crisis in North Darfur, Sudan, and is being driven by attacks by paramilitary rapid support forces (RSF), the UN warns.
Sudan’s UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Clementine Nukuweta Salami, said in a statement released on Sunday that access to humanitarian aid is “restricted to the extent that it is dangerous” in the capital Elfasher and its surrounding areas, and the RSF has launched multiple attacks over the last few weeks.
These attacks have led to massive escapes from Zamzam, Abushuk and other refugee camps. This is a situation that is “increasingly fluid and “unpredictable” amid concerns that the RSF is preparing for a wider attack.
Two years after the conflict with Sudan’s military government, the RSF attacked Zamzam – it was said to have evacuated up to a million people, and more than a week ago, Abu Shok camp killed at least 300 people, and up to 400,000 residents fled 60km (37 miles) across the desert into the town of Tawira.
In her statement, Nkweta-Salami said that up to 450,000 displaced people are “increasingly blocked from supply chains and support, increasing the risk of epidemic outbreak, malnutrition and hunger.”
She urged UN and NGO officials to “ensure immediate and sustainable access to these regions, allowing them to be provided on a safe and large scale, to save lives.
“Absolutely devastating”
Later last week, a medical charity for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said that displaced people in Tawila are “in the face of an absolute devastating situation.”
“There is no water source, no sanitation facilities or food,” said Thibault Hendler of MSF.
Project coordinator Marion Ramstein said the NGO saw more than 170 people who had been shot and explosive injuries, 40% of them saw women and girls.
A new arrival in Tawila told AFP news agency that they had been robbed of their property by paramilitary groups and reported that several women had been raped on the road.
Tawila is ruled by an armed group that was locked out of the conflict between the RSF and the regular army that broke out in April 2023.
The conflict splits Sudan into two, the army is upset in the north and east, and the RSF controls most of Darfur and parts of the south.
The war killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million people, creating what the United Nations described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
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