Team Zamzam Monthly Report (August 30 – September 26, 2024), from the Coordinating Counselor
(translated by Gaffar Mohammud Saeneen, edited by Eric Reeves)
This monthly report on the activities of Team Zamzam comes at a critically difficult time, defined by acute security challenges. This includes continuous indiscriminate shelling with heavy artillery of civilian neighborhoods in nearby El Fasher, killings, and violence of all kinds—all exacerbating famine. We live in a stifling siege, with floods, and mass displacement of a sort that Darfur has never experienced. The following attempts to shed some light on the present crisis facing the people of the region—particularly the North Darfur capital of El Fasher and Zamzam camp for displaced persons.
Introduction
El Fasher is a city screaming under the terror of constant bombardment. In the heart of Darfur, the city of El Fasher is experiencing an immense human tragedy that is increasing day by day. The deadly sounds of artillery shelling by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is constantly turning the daily life of its citizens into an unbearable hell. El Fasher has become a symbol of endless human suffering. The endless sound of cannons mingles with the cries of children, women, and the elderly.
There is no longer a safe place in El Fasher or its surrounding; fear and terror spread across all neighborhoods of the city without distinction. Homes that used to contain warm family memories have been turned into rubble, and the streets where children used to play and have fun have become arenas of destruction and death.
Schools have closed their doors. The remaining hospitals are suffering from a severe shortage of medical supplies and the deliberate destruction of virtually all health facilities has made the treating of wounds an almost impossible task. The population lives in a state of constant terror, as they cannot predict when and where the next bombing will fall. Fleeing to safer areas is an option that is not available to the vast majority of the population. Resources are very scarce and movement is deadly dangerous.
Children who dream of a bright future find themselves today surrounded by the scenes of death, rotting human corpses, mass destruction, and constant bombardment. The dreams of the people of El Fasher to live in peace have grown cold; the people are still silent and resilient, but they wonder how long they must be silent.
El Fasher today
Security conditions in El Fasher, its surroundings, and Zamzam Camp
Since May 10th of this year, El Fasher has witnessed a large exodus of civilians fleeing as a result of deteriorating security conditions and artillery shelling. Many have been forced to flee their homes to shelter centers in Zamzam camp, the village of Saloma in the countryside of El Fasher, and the Umm Qadibu area. In these centers, they suffer from acute shortages of food, protection, medicine, and basic necessities.
In the past two months, in addition to the continuous bombing and shelling of civilian neighborhoods, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have increased the pace of kidnapping citizens in North Darfur to obtain money through extortion. In mid-August the RSF militia intensified their crimes of kidnapping girls, young men, and women; they then require the payment of large sums in exchange for their release.
Some of the kidnapped were forced to fight alongside this brutal militia force if the money was not paid. In the second week of September, three girls were kidnapped from their farms to the west of Zamzam camp and transferred to the Tabit unit in Dar Al Salam locality. This is 45 km south of El Fasher. The RSF then demanded 25 million Egyptian pounds from the families of the kidnapped girls in exchange for their release. The families were unable to pay this money and the kidnapped girls continue to be held.
The humanitarian situation is beyond critical
The humanitarian situation throughout Darfur has continued to deteriorate at an alarming rate; but in North Darfur and its capital, El Fasher, which has been under siege by the Rapid Support militias for several months, the situation has reached a critical state. Famine began its deadly rampage in earnest four months ago, despite denial by the local and national authorities.
The continuous stifling siege and the deliberate blocking of roads by the aggressor forces has made entry of commercial transport trucks and the commercial movement within the city and its environs very difficult. This catastrophic situation has led to the severe scarcity and the disappearance of the most basic necessities, such as life-saving medications and food supplies. This has created a growing sense of terror and a state of psychological instability among the citizens.
Health conditions
Health security in Darfur, especially North Darfur, has long been deteriorating. Inside the city and camps very near the city, the RSF has deliberately destroyed nearly all the health centers by means of artillery bombardment. This has resulted in a serious overcrowding of the number of displaced people in shelter centers and local community gatherings sites. This overcrowding in turn has led to the spread of large numbers of contagious diseases. People are experiencing unknown pains—and the spread of diseases carried by flies and mosquitoes has increased dramatically.
Again, the main hospitals have been completely destroyed as a result of violent artillery shelling by the RSF, and as a result, a number of people are dying because of injuries, disease, and shortages of essential life-saving medicine. There is also a significant spread of acute malnutrition (and severe acute malnutrition), malaria, infections, cases of cholera, meningitis, infections of the eyelids, and diarrhea among children.
Below is a list of hospitals, clinics and health facilities that were completely destroyed
Children’s Hospital in East El Fasher
El Fasher Teaching Hospital in the city center
Babakir Nahar Hospital in the south of the city
Nabd Al Hayat Hospital in the middle of the city
El Fasher Southern Hospital
Jebel Marra Private Hospital
Dialysis Hospital
Therapeutic Nutrition Center
More than 20 pharmacies
The Saudi Hospital for Obstetrics and Gynecology is the only hospital still operating in El Fasher, despite it being bombed more than 15 times by the RSF militias.
Work carried out by team Zamzam from late August to late September
On August 31st and September 2nd and 4th, Team Zamzam set up a kitchen in the middle of the camp to organise collective feeding for the displaced of Zamzam camp in several shelter centers; two shelter centers were particulary targeted according to their need and quantity.
Al-Salam 18 girls shelter center, which contains around 18,100 families
The shelter center for boys
The number of displaced people fed in these two shelter centers was 2,862.
Two other centers were assisted:
Al-Salam 47
Al-Salam 48
The number of displaced people fed came to 1,500 families, or 3491 individuals. They had fresh, delicious food in an organized manner in the presence of a number of local administrators, neighborhood representatives, notables, ordinary citizens, young entrepreneurs, social activists and other charitable groups.
This new kitchen program has brought huge relief for many people who are suffering from severe malnutrition. It has created a positive atmosphere of solidarity in Zamzam and made many of the camp’s notables praise Team Zamzam’s counselors and its volunteers for this remarkable humanitarian achievement in difficult times.
Testimonies of beneficiaries, camp notables and representatives of local, national and international NGOs
Hassan Saber, the Commissioner’s Representative for the Humanitarian Aid Commission, expressed his voice of thanks and appreciation for the initiative of Team Zamzam and everyone who contributed to providing a spoon to the displaced people, and called for immediate additional assistance from humanitarian organizations and philanthropists. The need is urgent, because if food supplies are not increased, Zamzam will face an extremely dangerous threat in the coming days.
Dr. Azidha, representative of the international organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF), also thanked team Zamzam for organising this extraordinary group feeding. She also calls for the immediate intervention of organizations working in the health field. She said: “The people of Zamzam camp are suffering severely from lack of food, medicine, first aid tools, absence of treatments, and severe overcrowding of families.”
Ms. Nour Al-Hadi, a representative in the health field, said that what Team Zamzam has done during the past period is wonderful humanitarian work, and now they have become the main pillar of this community. “We hope that others will learn from them.” She said: “The camp needs primary health supplies for the health centers in Zamzam camp, and needs for organizations to enter urgently.”
The civil administrations of the four sectors of Zamzam are thankful and appreciative of the supporters of this Team and everyone who contributed and participated in this food program. One of them said that there are more than 128 shelter centers in the Zamzam camp for displaced persons, so it needs a comprehensive humanitarian effort.
Sexual violence
With the increase in the pace of fighting and the siege of El Fasher, the number of victims of sexual violence has increased significantly. Unsurprisingly, most of the victims are young girls aged 12 – 21. Many cases went unreported because of complications and stigma.
The last case that came to our attention was on August 23rd: two young girls 14 and 17, with their mother, were heading to Tawila area after fleeing from El Fasher. On their way to the Tawila area, the three victims were stopped 15 kilometres west of Zamzam by a group of RSF militiamen who were in the back of four-wheeled military vehicles. They asked the victims: where are they going? have they seen or encountered any military escorts on their way? which tribe do they belong to?
After that, the aggressors started beating the victims, tearing off their clothes violently and insulting them with derogatory [i.e., racist] terms. Bouthina, the mother of two young girls said: “I begged them to God to take me instead and spare my children, but they knocked me down and tied me up while my daughters were screaming in terror and pain.”
Buthaina said, “My little girls and I were beaten and gang-raped for more than two hours, and in my life I have never seen such despicable people. Their hearts are filled with hatred for the black [non-Arab/African—ER] people.” After the incident, the victims were robbed of their few possessions and forced to return towards El Fasher; but they decided instead to go to Zamzam camp to seek shelter. Two days after their arrival at Zamzam, the mother of the victims managed to contact counselors of Team Zamzam to seek help; the counselors responded immediately to provide psychological support and pain relief pills.
Other important activities during the past few weeks period
Team Zamzam participated in an expanded meeting with international organizations and local charities working in the humanitarian field in northern Darfur. At the invitation of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian affairs (OCHA), team Zamzam participated in a Zamzam camp meeting to survey the humanitarian situation and to discuss the need for coordination between organizations and the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) in North Darfur to provide humanitarian services to the camp.
The representative of OCHA has indicated that the human situation is very worrying and requires intensive efforts in coordination. Representatives of organizations and local charities listened to the interests of the displaced in terms of food, water, and health.
All the representatives of the displaced focused on food—then water, health, and shelters. They demanded food sooner because some families have become using plants and leaves of trees as a basic meal for them.
Water
Concerning water: most of the water sources in the Zamzam camp are broken, especially pumps and tanks. Even the available water is too saline and needs treatment. The displaced people have resorted to harvesting rain water using tarpaulin on the ground.
[Our project has now enabled Team Zamzam to rehabilitate eight wells that have fallen into serious disrepair; this has provided potable water for thousands of camp residents—ER]
Health
There are only two organizations working in the field of health inside the camp. Signs of malnutrition are most conspicuous in children, pregnant and lactating women, and the elderly. A vast increase in the number of mosquitoes and flies has led to malaria, diarrhea, and other diseases.
People who have been wounded residing in homes and health centers
There is an acute lack of trained medical cadres in the camp. The breakdown of toilets is due to flooding rains. Families have been forced into shelters that already need urgent intervention. Some families use carts as a way to earn a living inside the camp, but the difficulty of not being able to provide straw for donkeys before the rainfall prompted some of the displaced to sell their carts and animals died from hunger. The lack of means of living or a way to earn an income—in functional, commercial, or agricultural work—has all but stopped since the war began in April 2013.
Protection
Women and children are the most affected populations in this war. The lack of protection prevents women from going to their farms for fear of attack by the RSF militias that are active around the area. There are also several cases of children who were kidnapped by the RSF militias while accompanying their parents in agriculture and so far they have not been released.
After listening to these complaints from the displaced, representatives of local charitable organizations and societies were divided into four groups, namely the Food – Water – Health – Protection groups, with camp participation, especially by women. Discussion, and questionnaire surveys, and group discussions were held. Finally, the groups were divided to conduct a field survey and take notes on random samples from within the displaced families in the camp. Later, these observations and requests of the displaced were collected from the aforementioned meeting, a report was made from them, and the final report was submitted to the concerned authorities.
Food items distributed by Team Zamzam between mid-August and to later September
As mentioned above in the report, the humanitarian situation in North Darfur—and Zamzam camp in particular—is almost incomprehensibly catastrophic. At present more than 90% of the camp’s residents are able to eat only one meal per day. New waves of displaced persons in the last three months have come from the city of El Fasher and the Abu Shouk camp [to the north of El Fasher proper]—these people are then forced into an existence within shelter centers that are already badly overcrowded.
Despite the siege and the intensely deadly violence fighting that the city and its environs have witnessed during the past four months, some food commodities are still obtainable from local merchants and traders. But the problem remains that the vast majority of camps population cannot afford to buy it. This is because:
• It is expensive beyond their ability to pay
• Shortages of cash
• Lack of means to earn an income
As usual, Team Zamzam continues to provide food parcels to the poorest groups after careful evaluation, and in the last distribution we targeted an estimated number of families who are suffering severely. In the very most recent distribution, made possible by an increased budget for the project, the number of displaced people fed came to 1,500 families, or 3491 individuals, including 72 widows, 58 orphans, 8 family with physically disabled family members, 4 families with paralyzed children 44 families with children suffering from acute malnutrition
Quantity of food distributed
10 large bags of sugar, each bag containing 50 kg
30 bags of flour, each containing 25 kg
30 bags of red lentils, each containing 25 kg
The distributions were made equally among each family.
Likely their only meal for the day
Counseling:
Individual sessions: 62
Group sessions: 39
Fistula patients
Before the war in El Fasher intensified on May 10, we had 238 patients registered on a waiting list to receive medical treatment and psychological counselling. But with the new waves of displacement that flowed from El Fasher, the number of patients has risen to more than 400. Unfortunately, with the destruction of most hospitals and private clinics, and as the city center of El Fasher became an area of deadly military confrontations, we could only continue to provide regular psychological counselling and moral support until things return to normal.
