BRIEF UPDATE FROM PROJECT ZAMZAM, AUGUST 7, 2025
Official Recognition of the Project as a Sudanese “NGO”
Geographical Expansion of Project to Tina Darfur (as well as Tiné Chad)
(Eric) This update will serve primarily to highlight two important developments affecting the capacity and geographic scope of Project Zamzam. For on August 5, 2025 the Project was officially recognized by the Humanitarian Affairs Commission of North Darfur as a Sudanese “NGO.” This reflects the extraordinary humanitarian contributions of Team Zamzam, even as they have relocated their magnificent efforts westward from the besieged city of El Fasher. It will make it much easier for the Team to receive supplies and resources from the UN and International Nongovernmental Organizations, which often don’t have the capacity to distribute effectively and equitably.
After the brutal assault on Zamzam by the Rapid Support Forces (mid-April), the Team decided to focus their humanitarian work well to the west, in Tiné, just over the border from Darfur in neighboring Chad. (The Guardian today offers a horrific and detailed account of the RSF assault on Zamzam, which resulted in many thousands of deaths in the camp and in desperate flight from it; we will likely never know the true death toll).
Work began in Tiné Chad in June, and the most recent update on the Team’s was posted on July 20, 2025. But there was always something artificial about allowing a finally arbitrary border to divide the larger humanitarian response. As a consequence, Team Zamzam—as a member of the consortium of Darfuri humanitarian actors in the area—voted, with all other members, to work in both Tiné (Chad) and Tiné (Tina) in Darfur:
The first photographs of Team Zamzam at work in Tina-Darfur appear below; many more will accompany future updates.
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It has been a truly remarkable five years for the Zamzam Project, so much of it made possible by the generosity of donors like you. We face tremendous challenges ahead in confronting the terrible suffering and deprivation that continues along with war in Sudan. But Team Zamzam has never been in a better position to utilize all the support we can give them.
Please 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 for the desperate refugees and displaced persons from Zamzam and other locations in North Darfur.
My thanks are echoed by all those below:
PROJECT ZAMZAM
Responding to Sexual Violence in Darfur
Providing Humanitarian Assistance to IDPs and Refugees in
Tiné/Tina (Chad/North Darfur)
Governance:
Gaffar Mohammud Saeneen, project co-chair
Eric Reeves, project co-chair
Nancy Reeves, editor/fundraising consultant
Team Zamzam:
[1] Naiema Mohammud Sineen, project coordinator/team supervisor
[2] Fatima Abdulkerim, project reporting
[3] Omar Managou Mohamed, project logistics and head of security.
[4] Manaheil Ibrahim Younis, responsible of fistula patients.
[5] Siham Abdullah Baraka, project deputy coordinator of Projects and spokesperson for
Team Zamzam on the ground
[6] Salma Mohamed Yahya, overseeing response to victims of sexual violence
[7] Zamzam Adam Abakar, counselor
[8] Rashida Alsafi Sabiel, counselor
[9] Um Elfoukara Abdullah Madibo, counselor
[10] Marwa Abakar Sineen, counselor
[11] Intisar Adam Ali, counselor
[12] Elnouba Harry Ali, counselor
[13] Fatina Bakiet, counselor
[14] Mazahir Mohamed Sidig, counselor
[15] Mouwada Yagoub, counselor
[16] Rougia Osman Dawoud, counselor
[17] Amani Tijani Sheta, counselor
[18] Fatima Katier, counselor
[19] Mahasin Abakar Arja, counselor
Security personnel:
[20] Musab Kater, security
[21] Ahmed Bushara Yahy, security
Photos of Team Zamzam in Tiné/Tina Darfur
