Sudan’s civil war has pushed a camp near the besieged Darfur town of El-Fasher, home to some 500,000 displaced people, into famine, an independent group of food security experts said.
The 16-month conflict and restrictions on aid deliveries were to blame, the Famine Review Committee (FRC) concluded after examining new data.
“The scale of the devastation caused by the escalating violence in El-Fasher is profound and distressing,” the report said, explaining how the population of Zamzam camp has increased dramatically since April.
The war, a power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, forcing 10 million people from their homes.
This comes as US-brokered talks, due to begin in two weeks, appear to be in jeopardy.
The RSF has accepted the invitation to Geneva, but it is unclear whether the military will also go after Wednesday’s meeting. alleged assassination attempt on military leader Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
“The main causes of the famine in the Zamzam camp are the conflict and the lack of humanitarian access, both of which can be remedied immediately with the necessary political will.” the FRC said.
The committee, which is affiliated with the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global initiative of UN agencies, aid organizations and governments that maps famine situations, analyzed two reports:
Fews Net reported that it is possible that famine is also occurring in the Abu Shouk and Al Salam camps, also near el-Fasher, but there is not enough evidence to say for sure.
The conditions for an area to be classified as a famine area are that at least 20% of households are experiencing extreme food shortages, 30% of children are severely malnourished and two in 10,000 people die every day from hunger, malnutrition and disease.
Since April, the RSF has been fighting to capture El-Fasher, the only town in western Darfur still under military control, from the army.
According to the FRC, some 320,000 people are believed to have fled the city, with some 150,000 to 200,000 moving to Zamzam camp in just a few weeks in May “in search of safety, basic services and food”.
That month, the UN expert on genocide prevention said many civilians in El-Fasher were being targeted based on their ethnicity, warning that the risk of genocide was increasing.
The violence in Darfur is comparable to the ethnic cleansing carried out by Arab Janjaweed militias against non-Arab communities two decades ago.
The main market in Zamzam camp was now only open intermittently and by June prices had risen dramatically: by 63% for cooking oil, 190% for sugar, 67% for millet and 75% for rice, the FRC said. The 47-page report provides an insight into conditions in the overcrowded camp.
In June and July there was a famine, which probably lasted until October, the harvest season.
However, experts fear that the hunger crisis will not abate much as many farmers are unable to plant due to the war.
The dire situation revealed by the reports about el-Fasher, particularly in Zamzam camp, was “just the tip of the iceberg,” warned Barrett Alexander of the aid group Mercy Corps.
“Based on our experience of previous famines, we know that by the time a famine is officially declared, many people have already died.”
He added that a recent Mercy Corps assessment in Central and South Darfur found that nine out of 10 children suffer from life-threatening malnutrition.
One of the last aid agencies still active in El-Fasher, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said the situation was likely to get worse if the blockade on humanitarian aid was not lifted soon.
“Our trucks left N’Djamena in Chad six weeks ago and should have been in El-Fasher by now, but we have no idea when they will be released,” said Stéphane Doyon of Doctors Without Borders, head of emergency aid in Sudan.
Both sides are accused of blocking aid and looting, both sides deny the charges.
MSF trucks are transporting therapeutic food and medical supplies for children in Zamzam camp, as well as surgical supplies for the last remaining hospital in El-Fasher where surgeries are performed.
The Saudi hospital was hit by shelling on Monday, killing three staff and wounding at least 25 people, the 10th attack in less than three months, the charity said.
“We do not know whether hospitals are being attacked deliberately, but Monday’s incident shows that the warring parties are not taking precautions to spare them,” Mr Doyon said.
Additional reporting by the BBC’s Anne Soy.
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