Gaffar Mohammud Saeneen and Eric Reeves, Co-Chairs
Nancy Reeves, Editor and Funding Advisor
This report is best read in light of the very full monthly report from the coordinating counselor of Team Zamzam (translated by Gaffar and received July 13, 2024). She and her colleagues offer what is almost certainly the fullest account of conditions inside and outside Zamzam camp for internally displaced persons. The report is more than anything an appeal for help from the international community (help for Project Zamzam can be provided here).
What is clear from her report—and from a growing number of reports on humanitarian conditions in Darfur and Sudan—is that mortality, especially starvation among children, is beginning to increase rapidly. Food convoys are desperately needed, but cannot reach those most malnourished because of territorial disputes between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudan Armed Forces: both of these brutal, ruthless forces are preventing unimpeded aid from eastern Chad reaching Darfur, either from Adré or Tine.
The RSF is in control of both locations and the SAF has proved reluctant to open a corridor from Adré, fearing it will be used to resupply the RSF. Two convoys have recently left Tine for Central Darfur, but one was hijacked, a grim reminder of the threat humanitarians face everywhere in Sudan during the current conflict:
Beyond this, the heavy seasonal rains have begun, making many roads and routes impossible for most vehicles. August and September are the heaviest months of rain, and the future of humanitarian assistance is held hostage to this seasonal reality. These will be the months of greatest mortality from the current famine, which may well extend into the fall, given the collapse of agricultural production, especially in North Darfur.
Its capital, El Fasher, is presently the scene of some of the most intense fighting in the current war, with the RSF determined to take the city with an extremely violent siege. Resistance by the SAF, former rebel groups, and a “citizens militia” has put up fierce resistance.
Zamzam IDP camp lies 15 kilometers to the southwest and is becoming increasingly insecure
Nothing has changed to make this assessment from the Clingendael Institute (The Netherlands) and more optimistic, certainly not for Darfur:
A scenario in which the hungriest people are given small amounts of extra food by others leads to an estimated excess mortality of about 2.5 million people (about 15% of the population in Darfur and Kordofan, which are likely worst affected) by the end of September 2024. A tipping point at which large-scale hunger transitions into large-scale death has likely already been reached in parts of the country in May.
All we can do as Team Zamzam is provide as much in the way of resources as possible, especially food, trying to help as many people as possible survive until humanitarian assistance arrives. Food is available in limited quantities, but traders and profiteers are charging obscenely high prices, knowing there is no alternative. Most of those in Zamzam cannot possibly afford to feed their families adequately.
