Sudan: Medical charity halts activities in major displacement camp due to heavy fighting

Khartoum, Feb 25 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) The non-governmental medical aid group, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), announced the suspension of all its activities in the Zamzam displacement camp in western Sudan’s North Darfur State.

“The current escalation of attacks and fighting in and around Zamzam camp for displaced people near El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, is making it impossible for MSF to continue providing medical assistance,” the MSF said in a statement.

“Despite widespread starvation and immense humanitarian needs, we have no choice but to take the decision to suspend all our activities in the camp, including the operation of the MSF field hospital,” it noted.

“Eleven patients died in the MSF hospital, five of them children, because we could neither treat them properly nor refer them to the Saudi hospital, the only health facility with surgical capacity in nearby El Fasher,” Yahya Kalilah, MSF’s head of mission in Sudan, was quoted in the statement as saying.

He noted that the battle for El Fasher now directly reaches Zamzam camp, Xinhua news agency reported.

“The sheer proximity of the violence, great difficulties in sending supplies, the impossibility of dispatching experienced staff, and uncertainty regarding routes out of the camp leave us with little choice,” he said.

According to MSF, the Zamzam camp, which hosts about 500,000 people, has been witnessing flocks of new arrivals fleeing from areas near El Fasher.

Fierce clashes have been raging in El Fasher between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since May 10, 2024.

Sudan has been gripped by a devastating conflict between the SAF and RSF since mid-April 2023, claiming at least 29,683 lives by the end of 2024, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a crisis monitoring group.

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