From the coordinating counselor of Team Zamzam (received December 26, 2023; posted December 27)
Translated by Gaffar Mohammud Saeneen, edited by Eric Reeves, Co-Chairs of Responding to Sexual Violence in Darfur
A field report from Team Zamzam that attempts to shed light on the humanitarian, health, and security conditions in and around the Zamzam camp for displaced people—as well as the city of El Fasher—for the current month of November.
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With the end of 2023 coming in a few days, the world around us—including our neighboring countries, both near and far—are all looking forward to the new year with hopes for happiness, health, love, and a greater sense of fraternity and solidarity. There are hopes as well for wider peace and fewer wars. But we in Sudan are caught up in a world defined by death—either from a stray bullet or hunger.
Despite the terribly harsh conditions created by the current war and the tribulations endured across most of the country, there is still great hope in the souls of the Sudanese people—people who have been tasting the bitterness of war from the time of the country’s independence to the present. More than sixty years of war in Sudan have killed millions, ruined millions of lives, displaced millions of people, and ripped apart millions of hearts. War has always been a struggle by the powerful to decapitate and eliminate hope from the bodies of Sudanese. But despite the endless suffering, fear, and deteriorating humanitarian conditions on the ground, the spirit of solidarity and perseverance remains high in the hearts of those living in camps for displaced people.
To be sure, there is ongoing displacement, continuing hunger, and a relentless scarcity of basic necessities; children are dying of malnutrition and extreme cold; all feel a constant fear of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)/Janjaweed attacks. But hope lives and the will to survive and create yet greater solidarity keeps our spirits unshaken.
We, team Zamzam’s counselors with our volunteers, speak on behalf of those thousands of victims of sexual violence, the voiceless who have yet to speak, the traumatised who are fighting back to recover, the fistula patients who are suffering in silence. These strong women of Zamzam wish to take this opportunity to extend a voice of thanks and appreciation to all our supporters and donors without whom this project would never have emerged.
In December, as in previous months, Team Zamzam—with its local volunteers—conducted several extensive field visits to inspect the humanitarian, health, and security conditions inside Zamzam and in the many (and rapidly growing number) shelter centers outside the camp. During these inspections, we witnessed the presence of very large numbers of displaced people taking flight from different regions to North Darfur State and its capital, El Fasher. They are fleeing the terrorism and extortion that define the activities of the Rapid Support. These displaced people endure appalling conditions that are extremely dangerous, as thousands of new families have been pouring into El Fasher from early October to the present.
Most of these families have fled the hell of heavy weapons and the ongoing fighting in North Darfur and other states in Darfur, and a large number of these displaced people are come from cities, including: Nyala, Zalingei, Khartoum, El Geneina, Kutum, Kass, and Kabkabiya. Large numbers of displaced people are also arriving from localities such as Tawila, Abu Zuraiqa (Tamad Dahish), and Al-Tarni (Musal).
New arrivals live in extremely harsh and difficult humanitarian conditions, with acute lack of food, medicine, clothing, water, and shelter in the temporary centers; at present there are more than 86 such centers. In all of them, there is a conspicuous absence of humanitarian organizations, as well as the absence of all competent authorities, especially the international relief and humanitarian agencies affiliated with the United Nations.
We call on philanthropists, humanitarian organizations, and human rights organizations to meet the current acute crisis of food insecurity. The needs of the displaced for water and health services, as well as shelter from the cold of the season are also urgent. The food crisis and the absence of shelter confront large numbers of displaced people—people forced to leave their homes and native areas and migrate to other cities and other states, and even to head to neighboring countries.
Basic necessities distributed for this month December 2023 and the number of beneficiaries:
Between the first and third week of December 2023, Team Zamzam had distributed basic necessities inside the Zamzam camp, focusing mainly on the locations of the new shelter centers, which are overcrowded with new families. The process of distribution has taken more than 72 hours in total because of the huge number of people in dire need.
Various food items were distributed in the shelter centers in both the Al Salam School 18 shelter center and the Zamzam Secondary School shelter center. Additionally, distributions occurred at a shelter center at the Shangil Tobaya Center in Zamzam and two other shelter centers next to the primary school in the Al-Thawra neighborhood, south of El Fasher.
Number of beneficiaries:
[1] A total of 325 families were provided with food supplies consisting of: red lentils, sugar, flour and pasta in Al Salam School 18 shelter center and the Zamzam Secondary School shelter center.
[2] A total of 166 families were provided with food supplies consisting of: red lentils, sugar, flour and pasta in the shelter center of Al-Thawra neighborhood south of El Fasher.
Total: 491 families have benefited from the distribution.
Total served: 1,682 persons
The number of children under the age of 12 years old is 823; Women: 256; disabled: 53; orphans: 64
NB: The above represents the work of the first three weeks of December; there is always a lag between the composition of the monthly Update in Zamzam (followed by the always excellent translation rendered by Gaffar) and my own editing and formatting of the documents. Team Zamzam’s work of the last week of the month is not always reflected in the Update for the following months—Eric]
Deteriorating health conditions:
Health conditions are very bad in Darfur as a whole, especially in North Darfur, again for a number of reasons: lack of security, insufficient food and water, absence of health professionals, and the inability for secure movement or travel.
There is a particularly severe deterioration in children’s health conditions, stemming from psychological pressure, fear and stress caused by gunshots, and an increase of miscarriages and births of deformed children.
There is also widespread disease among the displaced people inside shelter centers. These include conjunctivitis, diarrhea, malaria, and dengue fever resulting from overcrowding in bathrooms; illness is especially common among children.
Medical treatment has become very expensive and there is terrible overcrowding in hospitals and at primary treatment centers.
Recommendations from inside the shelter centers:
[1] People are in dire need of food and water. The first priority for the residents of these shelters is food. We therefore appeal to all local, regional and international charitable organizations to assist immediately.
[2] There is an urgent need for warm clothes and blankets for children: and others who are vulnerable, including orphans, widows, and disabled people suffering from difficult and volatile weather conditions.
[3] Hygiene resources are desperately needed, including insecticides.
[4] There is an urgent need for drinking water conservation tools inside shelter centers. Despite the re-conditioning of six wells funded by Team Zamzam, water shortages are acute.
[5] There is also a need to provide the security that will open roads so that people can leave the camp to go back and forth in order to secure basic necessities.
[6] The urgent need to allow local, regional and international health organizations to intervene immediately and provide basic life-saving medicines and painkillers.
Other work carried out during December:
[1] A total of 26 visits to various shelter centers inside and outside Zamzam camp to inspect people’s conditions.
[2] Accompanying 47 patients suffering from various illnesses to different hospitals and clinics in El Fasher for medical treatment.
[3] 8 meetings with different groups of volunteers, community groups, neighborhood officials, and women’s groups to reflect on current developments and the overall situation, following up on what has been scheduled in previous meetings.
[4] Accompanying 3 urinary fistula patients to clinics and hospitals in El Fasher for medical treatment.
[5] Continuing provision of psychosocial counseling to hundreds of girls and women traumatized by sexual violence:
Counseling sessions for December 2023:
individual counseling sessions: 58
Group counseling sessions: 23
Total counseling sessions : 81
On example:
Testimony from a victim of sexual violence—Mecca xxx , 21 years old, from the Tarni area, Dar es Salaam locality in North Darfur. Mecca was subjected to sexual, physical, and verbal violence by Janjaweed militias on December 8, 2023 while she was working on her farm is in the area of Kulqi-Qalab.
Mecca said that while she was on her farm, a group of camel herders deliberately tried to ruin her agricultural crop, and after she refused to allow them, the group called the Rapid Support Forces, who were based nearby. Mecca said:
“Three Rapid Support Forces cars with heavy weapons came immediately and surrounded us from all directions in the farm, and then they fired heavy bullets into the air in order to terrify everyone present with me as well as on a neighbor’s farm. After that, they got out of their cars and came to us with the two of camel herders, pointing their weapons at us and throwing every insulting word at us. They took with them all our personal property, food, and agricultural crops, and told us: “These lands and all of Darfur now belong to the Arab tribes!”
Mecca said: “I tried to resist but they beat me up badly and broke my arm.”
Mecca was subjected to verbal and physical, and sexual violence, along with her cousin Khadija—in front of her mothers’ eyes on their farm by six armed men: the two camel herders and four men belonging to the Rapid Support Forces. She’s now recovering gradually but her cousin Khadija is in shock. Counselors are making every effort to help them to recover from their trauma. For her part, Al-Radiyya Taher, Khadija’s mother, said:
“Every day, more mothers’ hearts are broken because of these brutal and ruthless Janjaweed, and there is no safe place for young girls in the country anymore.” She thanks counselors of team Zamzam for coming to rescue her daughter.