Thirteen children die every day as a result of severe malnutrition at the ZamZam camp in Darfur, Sudan. The staggering losses are a devastating consequence of the ongoing war in Sudan.
Sudanese children play as Muslim worshippers who fled violence in Khartoum, gather to mark Eid al-Adha on June 28, 2023, in the region of Jazira, south of Khartoum. Fighting raged in the Sudanese capital on the eve of the Muslim holiday, after paramilitaries seized Khartoum's main police base.
The head of the U.N. refugee agency said that without additional support or a ceasefire agreement, refugees from Sudan will attempt to make their way to Europe.
"The Europeans are always so worried about people coming across the Mediterranean. Well, I have a warning for them that if they don't support more refugees coming out of Sudan, even displaced people inside Sudan, we will see onward movements of people towards Libya, Tunisia, and across the Mediterranean," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said. "There is no doubt."
There are more than 9 million people internally displaced in Sudan and 1.5 million refugees that have fled to neighboring countries in the ten months of clashes.
According to Claire Nicolet, head of emergency response in Sudan for Doctors without Borders (MSF), one child dies every two hours in the camp.
"Those with severe malnutrition who have not yet died are at high risk of dying within three to six weeks if they do not get treatment," Nicolet said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press.
MSF says that the ZamZam camp holds more than 300,000 people and was initially formed by people fleeing ethnically targeted violence in the region in April 2023. However, since the war broke out between Sudan's military and paramilitary forces, camp residents have been cut off from vital humanitarian aid and medical care.
"Now, they have been almost completely abandoned. There have been no food distributions from the World Food Program since May. People are going hungry - and children are dying as a result," Nicolet remarked.
What About The Staff?
Al-Jazeera reported that the staff is no longer receiving salaries. Equipment and medicines are in short supply, as are fuel for generators, water, and other supplies needed to keep health facilities running.
"What we are seeing in Zamzam camp is an absolutely catastrophic situation," continued Claire Nicolet, head of MSF's emergency response in Sudan.
Last year, a simmering rivalry between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese army erupted into an all-out war. The fighting has caused roughly 10.7 million people to flee their homes while 17.7 million are now facing severe hunger, United Nations agencies said.
January is usually a month when malnutrition is at its lowest because food stock fills up after December's harvest, but because of the war, people have been unable to tend to their crops.
