CAIRO (AP) — Malnourished children in a famine-stricken camp for war-displaced people in Sudan’s western Darfur region are at risk of dying, an aid agency said Sunday, after being forced to ration malnutrition treatment because of a blockade imposed by a notorious paramilitary group.
Doctors Without Borders reported that the Rapid Support Forces, who have besieged the town of Al-Fasher as part of their war against the Sudanese army, have blocked three trucks carrying life-saving medical supplies, including therapeutic food, to the town and the nearby Zamzam camp where famine was confirmed last week.
Sudan descended into chaos in April last year as simmering tensions between the army and the RSF escalated into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, before spreading across the northeastern African country. Darfur saw some of the worst and most devastating fighting of the war.
The conflict has killed thousands of people and pushed many to starvation. It has created the world’s largest displacement crisis, with more than 10 million people forced to flee their homes since April 2023, according to the UN migration agency. More than 2 million of them fled to neighbouring countries.
International experts from the Famine Review Committee confirmed on Thursday that the famine in the Zamzam camp, home to some 600,000 people, has developed into a full-blown famine.
International experts use established criteria to confirm the existence of famines. A famine is declared in an area when one in five people or households is severely food insecure and faces starvation and poverty, which would eventually lead to critical levels of acute malnutrition and death.
In Zamzam camp, which is increasingly crowded with new displaced people, many children are in critical condition, according to Doctors Without Borders. The malnutrition unit of the camp’s field hospital is also overcrowded, with 126% of beds occupied.
The group said RSF fighters had been blocking trucks in the town of Kabkabiya for more than a month and had been forced to limit the number of children receiving therapeutic food in the overcrowded camp, as supplies of medicine are only enough for two weeks.
“Deliberately obstructing or delaying humanitarian cargo puts the lives of thousands of children at risk as they are cut off from life-saving treatment,” said the social media platform X.
The RSF has not yet commented.
The RSF has besieged el-Fasher in a months-long attempt to capture it from the army and its allied rebel groups. The city, the provincial capital of North Darfur, is the army’s last stronghold in the war-torn Darfur region.
