Since the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched a large-scale ground offensive on Sudan's Zamzam camp on April 11, hundreds of thousands of people have fled, joining communities already besieged and deprived of lifesaving aid in El Fasher, the neighboring capital city of North Darfur.
About 25,000 more people have reached the town of Tawila, about 40 miles to the west, where overwhelmed teams from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) are expanding activities to cope with the most pressing medical needs. We are making an urgent appeal to put an end to the siege and the atrocities, to allow those who wish to flee to do so safely, and to deliver humanitarian aid, including by airdropping food and medicines to El Fasher if necessary.
MSF teams treat new arrivals in Tawila
After months of an increasingly tight siege on the area around Zamzam, RSF and its allied armed groups stormed the camp, which hosted at least 500,000 people and is Sudan’s largest displacement camp. By April 16, the camp had been largely destroyed an was reportedly under RSF control. The majority of Zamzam’s population is believed to have fled to El Fasher, where they remain trapped, out of reach for humanitarian aid and exposed to ongoing attacks and further mass violence.
MSF teams in Tawila saw over 25,000 people arriving from Zamzam and nearby areas between April 12 and 15, but displaced people are now coming more sporadically and at great risk for their lives along the way. Our teams set up a health post at the entrance of Tawila to provide new arrivals with water and immediate nutritional and medical support. We refer critical cases to the local hospital, where we have been working since last October. About 1,600 patients so far have required emergency outpatient services, mainly because of severe dehydration.
“We are treating children who were literally dying of thirst on their journeys," said Marion Ramstein, MSF project coordinator in Tawila. "We have received so far over 170 people with gunshot and blast injuries and 40 percent of them are women and girls. People tell us that many injured and vulnerable people could not make the trip to Tawila and were left behind. Almost everyone we talk to said they lost at least one family member during the attack.”
Hundreds dead amid door-to-door killings
Horrific reports have emerged from Zamzam camp, where hundreds of people are estimated to have been killed. Fighters were said to be going door-to-door, shooting people hiding in their homes and burning large parts of the camp. Casualties include 11 staff from the humanitarian organization Relief International, which was running the only remaining clinic in the camp after MSF suspended its activities in Zamzam in February due to the escalating violence and blockade.
We urge RSF and all armed groups in the area to spare and protect civilians and ensure that those who want to flee can do so without further harm. States and diplomatic actors must use their leverage to translate hollow statements into concrete actions. There have been repeated warnings from the UN and many observers about the risks of mass killings and ethnic violence in El Fasher and the surrounding displacement camps, which are mostly inhabited by people from the non-Arab Zaghawa and Fur ethnic groups, while most of RSF fighters and their allies originate from Arab tribes.
Tales of violence and forced displacement from Sudan
Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee to the Nuba Mountains region of South Kordofan, where MSF is supporting several hospitals and medical facilities.
Sudan needs aid more urgently than ever
After two years of a catastrophic war on people met by neglectful indifference, it remains inconceivable to simply resign ourselves to the current collective failure to provide vital assistance where it’s most needed.
“A massive humanitarian response is needed, now more urgently than ever," said Rasmane Kabore, MSF head of mission in Sudan. "If the roads to El Fasher are blocked, then air operations must be launched to bring food and medicines to the estimated 1 million people trapped there and being starved. A scaled-up response is also needed in Tawila, where some of the survivors are being received and local capacities are overwhelmed.”
MSF and several other organizations are launching emergency interventions in Tawila, but much more is needed in terms of water, food, medical care, and shelter.
