REPORT FROM TEAM ZAMZAM, OCTOBER 28, 2024
Nancy Reeves, Editor and Funding Advisor
This report is best read in light of several previous postings this month on SudanReeves.org. These include the report from the coordinating counselor of Team Zamzam detailing the creation of a communal “kitchen” in Zamzam, dedicated to feeding those most in need (as determined by the team of counselors who engage in continual surveys of the camp as a whole). Between the four communal “kitchen lunches” and other food distributions, more than 9,000 people received a substantial meal as well as a small supplementary food supply.
In her report, the coordinating counselor also provides a detailed account of the current humanitarian situation in Zamzam and the nearby city of El Fasher (capital of North Darfur), as well as the specific needs for these populations. Malnutrition continues to skyrocket and more and more residents, particularly very young children are starving to death or dying from malnutrition-related diseases. Despite this thoroughly desperate situation, affecting as many as 3 million people, no international humanitarian aid is in prospect. Responsibility lies with both the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the intolerable level of insecurity they have created—and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), which refuses to allow unrestricted humanitarian access to Darfur from Ádre (eastern Chad), where an abundance of aid lies unused.
Famine continues to accelerate in these circumstances, and two posts speak to what we know—and what we have long known about this terrible threat:
“What We Know Now About Famine in Sudan,” (October 20, 2024)
and
“Famine Warnings for Sudan: What We Have Known for More than a Year,” (October 21, 2024)
The insecurity created by the RSF is the focus of much of this month’s report from the coordinating counselor, offering a first-hand account of the destruction of El Fasher—now reduced largely to rubble—as well as highly reliable accounts on RSF attacks on villages north of Kutum (which lies to the northwest of Zamzam. She reports:
RSF militia attacked the area of Inka north of Kutum (North Darfur), killing civilians, plundering property and livestock, and effectively changing the demography of the region. According to eyewitnesses from those areas, more than 17 villages were burned and more than 30,000 people were displaced and then trapped in valleys where humanitarian conditions are desperate. The number killed or wounded was more than 2,000 unarmed citizens; this includes children, the elderly, and women.
The Rapid Support Forces, who have no popular support in Sudan as a whole—or in most of Darfur—continue their barbarism because of critical logistical/military/financial assistance from the United Arab Emirates. Without this support, the RSF would slowly collapse—and yet there is no significant international pressure on the Emirates to half their complicity in murder, rape, massive destruction of crops and towns, torture of the inhabitants, and deliberate efforts to halt humanitarian assistance in order to “change the demography” of Darfur (witness the recent attacks near Kutum). Emirati hands are covered in Sudanese blood.
None of this deters the counselors of Team Zamzam, who work with the same determination and skill in doing whatever can be done for the people in the midst of this vast arena of suffering. As “Zamzam Kitchen” continues its remarkable work in feeding the population to the full extent possible, we should salute their resourcefulness and compassion.
****** HOW TO HELP MAKE MORE SUCH EVENTS POSSIBLE******
NB: It is now possible to make a tax-deductible contribution to our project, using a portal on the website of a 501/c/3 organization operating in Sudan. Operation Broken Silence, working primarily on health and education issues in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, has created a special site for tax-deductible contributions to our project, and we hope this makes contributing to the health and well-being of the people of Zamzam easier for donors.
Those wishing to assist in funding the work of Team Zamzam may also send a check directly to Eric (Eric Reeves, 31 Franklin St., Northampton, MA 01060).
OR
Purchase one of his woodturnings: https://www.ericreeves-woodturner.com/collections/all
All proceeds from all woodturning sales go directly to sustaining our work in Zamzam