Context (Eric)
Fighting around El Fasher continues, but the inevitability of Rapid Support Forces (RSF) defeat seems to grow daily. Fighting has been intense for months, but the success of the RSF has been primarily in the use of stand-off artillery (supplied by a despicably expedient United Arab Emirates/UAE) to destroy civilian structures, particularly health facilities. But a series of setbacks elsewhere, and the inability to capture El Fasher, makes the loss of convoys of re-supply from Chad/Libya even more consequential. The critical state of Al Gezira—Sudan’s agricultural hub—has also seen the defeat of the RSF following the defection to the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) of a senior RSF commander. The greater Khartoum urban area is also coming increasingly under SAF control.
The RSF response to an inability to capture El Fasher has been to resort to brutal, vengeful artillery attacks on Zamzam IDP camp, 15 kilometers to the southwest of El Fasher. The effects of this shelling are detailed in this month’s update from the coordinating counselor of Team Zamzam (below).
Defeat of the RSF is the only way in which substantial humanitarian aid can reach Darfur and a number of other states in Sudan—the only way in which the vast quantities of food, medicine, and other critical supplies can move safely from Port Sudan on the Red Sea to destinations in the west.
But even as we must wish for the defeat of the RSF, the SAF itself has been guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the SAF and de facto “head of state” is under U.S. sanctions because of his command responsibility for these atrocity crimes. And yet al-Burhan is looking forward to continuing as ruler of Sudan and recently proposed enormously consequential “amendments” to the constitution of 2019. These “amendments” would have the effect of creating a regime that replicates in most ways the tyranny of the al-Bashir regime (1989 – 2019).
Notoriously, the al-Bashir regime was fiercely hostile to international humanitarian organizations, and we might well expect that General al-Burhan will continue this hostility as judged necessary for his security and power. He is already responsible in large measure for the failure of adequate access for humanitarian relief from Chad, to the west of Darfur. Notably, al-Burhan shamelessly denies that famine exists in Sudan, despite the most authoritative confirmation of this ghastly reality.
Al-Burhan will also have to contend with various threats to his power from within the military, from the Islamists still loyal to the ambitions of the al-Bashir regime, and even from a populace that while fractious is deeply tired and angry that the ideals of the 2019 popular uprising have been so completely betrayed, by both RSF commander Hemedti and the SAF’s al-Burhan—the very men now engaged in a fight to the death that has made of Sudan the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis.
For Zamzam, a camp for displaced persons with a population of as many as 1 million residents (informed estimates vary widely), spread out over a camp that is more than three miles long, all this has fundamental implications for survival. Small amounts of food have been delivered: one UN convoy, as well as therapeutic food aid for the most dangerously malnourished children under five—this from Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières—MSF. Notably, MSF has argued for airdrops of food—the most dangerous and least effective form of humanitarian aid delivery, especially if done without coordination with distributing agents on the ground. The situation, however, is sufficiently dangerous and threatening on the ground that this proposal should receive urgent attention.
But only large convoys of food can supply what is needed by this increasingly malnourished population. To be sure, the El Fasher airport—the largest in Darfur—could provide considerable aid in the near term if the airport were secure. But the RSF has potent anti-aircraft weapons (again from the UAE), and no humanitarian flights, i.e., large, slow-moving cargo planes, can fly so long as the RSF is fighting in the region.
All this underscores the importance of the work of Team Zamzam as described below. The Team targets for assistance the very most needy and destitute, especially children (including the large number of orphans), the elderly, and the infirm. Other groups in Zamzam have begun to follow the model of Team Zamzam using funds received from friends and family in the diaspora. But Team Zamzam is widely recognized as the most experienced, best-funded, and most effective in conducting assessments of all four quadrants of the enormous camp.
While there are no definitive data on levels of malnutrition in Zamzam, Team Zamzam is adamant in its insistence that the numbers are rising rapidly. This is borne out by research from MSF, which is the only humanitarian organization with a continuous presence in Zamzam, primarily assisting children. A September 2024 MSF assessment during a vaccination campaign revealed malnutrition figures that had increased by almost 50% since a similar MSF survey in January of last year:
January 2024: A global acute malnutrition (GAM) rate of 23% and a severe acute malnutrition rate of 7%
September 2024: 34.8% GAM and 10% SAM
Four months later, we can only assume that malnutrition continues to rise rapidly. In its September press release, MSF made clear the stakes:
“Michel Olivier Lacharité, head of emergency operations for MSF. “We are talking about thousands of children who will die over the next few weeks without access to adequate treatment and urgent solutions to allow humanitarian aid and essential goods to reach Zamzam.”
“Among the more than 29,000 children under five years old screened last week during a vaccination campaign in Zamzam camp, 10 percent suffer from severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition, while 34.8 percent suffer from global acute malnutrition, which will evolve into a more severe form of malnutrition if not treated effectively and in a timely fashion.”
What famine looks like: this child, photographed several months ago in the last stages of SAM, has certainly died
We may be all too sure that many of the SAM patients have indeed died—and continue to die every day. With this as context, the Update from Team Zamzam appears below.
************************
From the coordinating counsellor of Team Zamzam
This is the monthly report covering the period from mid-December of last year to mid-January 2025; its purpose is to shed light on shortages of basic necessities, including food supplies. Distributions to this deprived population were made by Team Zamzam,primarily to the shelter centers of the IDP camp.
A brief overview of the current situation
Since the first week of December 2024, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militias began escalating their attacks on Zamzam camp, using massive artillery shells. This led to the deaths of dozens of people and hundreds of wounded. These violent attacks caused great destruction to a very large number of the homes of displaced persons, to shelter centers, and burned large amounts of property; even domestic animals often did not survive these barbaric acts.
These brutal and unjustified acts by the RSF have become a symbol of the systematic cruelty and racism that now affects millions of displaced people— citizens fleeing places of war in search of safety and security. This relentless aggression has caused widespread psychological trauma among the displaced. Notably, it is well known that the RSF militias do not want to fight the army or the Joint Forces, but rather want to force further displacement of unarmed civilians.
Damage to Zamzam IDP camp caused by RSF artillery shelling
Despite the huge losses in the lives, property, and homes of the displaced, to date no statement has been issued by any competent authority responsible for the displaced, condemning the RSF militias for their actions. The whole world appears silent—and shame on the countries that support these terrorist militias without considering the suffering of children, the elderly, pregnant women, the disabled, and people with other special needs who die because of these militias.
The humanitarian and living situation in and around Zamzam IDP camp, El Fasher, and its environs
RSF bombing and shelling of Zamzam IDP camp was, and is, deliberate and retaliatory in nature, the result of the RSF failure to seize the city of El Fasher. This sudden change in the dynamic of war represents extraordinary violence against defenseless displaced people, although popular defense forces are preparing for a full-on RSF onslaught. These are people who have fled from cities, towns, and villages throughout Darfur and other parts of Sudan, seeking refuge in Zamzam camp. This large influx of newly displaced persons has aggravated an already deteriorating humanitarian situation and led also to the closure of many trading routes into El Fasher. The long-time inhabitants of Zamzam camp are suffering from a severe shortage of food, drinking water, and medicines.
This was true even before the terrible violence that rapidly engulfed Sudan with the beginning of hostilities on April 15, 2023. But when the war began, the humanitarian crisis rapidly deteriorated; this coincided with a sudden departure of humanitarian and international relief organizations that had been providing basic aid.
The sudden exit of relief organizations in mid-2023, the absence of state and national NGOs to fill the vacuum created, and the continuous waves of displacement to Zamzam camp from many cities and towns were all the result of expanding RSF control. An already frightening and depressing reality began to move into free-fall with the disappearance of life-saving necessities such as medicine and food.
In May 2024—a year after the outbreak of violence—the RSF launched their brutal attack on El Fasher. At that point the situation had reached a critical stage; famine—despite the continuous denial of the de facto government—took hold fully in Zamzam. The number of deaths due to malnutrition increased tremendously: the inability to purchase food, the absence of available cash, and the disappearance of life-saving medications began to increase dramatically day by day.
Conditions were made even more intolerable with the violent attack on the city of El Fasher and the Abu Shouk IDP camp; this assault continued uninterruptedly from mid-May 2024 through the end of last year, leading to the fleeing of an estimated two-thirds of the population of the city of El Fasher and the Abu Shouk camp. They fled either to Zamzam camp or towards Tawila town, located sixty kilometers west of El Fasher.
These ongoing waves of massive displacement and mass influx to Zamzam have not only exhausted the already overcrowded Zamzam camp, but have also contributed to a worsening of the already intolerable living conditions (sanitation became a major issue). Still, many people were forced to contemplate fleeing from Zamzam to wherever their fate might take them.
Over the past year and a half, the people of Zamzam camp have gone through constant ordeals and increasingly difficult living conditions, plagued by killings, constant extortion, terrifying artillery shelling, relentless hunger, the stifling siege of El Fasher, and savage sexual violence.
Too many camp residents have witnessed the death of their loved ones—often before their very eyes—because of hunger and a lack of life-saving medicines. Some have begun to give up dreaming and hoping that the next day will be better.
Despite the difficult ordeals, the long suffering, and the feeling of being forgotten by the world, the people of Zamzam are for the most part patient and determined to continue to resist, fighting for their dignity and the right to live. This difficult period of war and bleak living conditions has created a sense of unparalleled solidarity and humanity among the people of Zamzam.
Today, thanks to our new collective feeding initiatives, many lives have been saved from death by malnutrition. Credit goes to those small local charities doing good work to provide food. But big credit goes to Team Zamzam, its volunteers and counsellors, and its bright idea of collective feeding initiatives. These have animated the entire camp and beyond with a sense of solidarity.
Orchestrating communal kitchens to feed thousands is an enormous task
Work and activities carried out mid-December 2024 to mid-January 2025
Providing fresh food and drinking water for those who fled Zamzam camp and scattered around the camp in the open air because of ongoing artillery shelling.
Between December 21st and December 28th, a period of one week, Team Zamzam organized a daily kitchen program to provide fresh meals and drinking water for 1,373 families, or 6,811 individuals.
The families who benefited from this program initially were living in several shelter centers in various sectors of Zamzam. But the sudden violent artillery shelling of Zamzam, which had continued for a second week, pushed many families to flee westward into open air. This artillery shelling of Zamzam had created terror and panic among these families, most of whom had already fled shelling in El Fasher and violence in other places throughout Darfur. Most of them are still scattered around Zamzam camp without the basic minimum of food supplies, or blankets and clothing, as they feared returning to the camp.
On January 8, 2025, Team Zamzam organised a collective (iftar) in the Zamzam camp shelter center of Al-Salam 56. On this occasion, the Team was able to target 658 families. comprising 2,780 individuals. This included orphaned children, the disabled, special needs cases, widows, the elderly, pregnant and sick women, children and as well as a group of young people who do not have access to food.
****** 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
