Sudan war pushed Darfur camp into famine: UN-backed report

PORT SUDAN, Sudan — War raging in Sudan between the army and rival paramilitaries has pushed the Zamzam camp near Darfur's besieged city of El-Fasher into famine, a UN-backed assessment said Thursday.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) review, which is used by UN agencies, found that "famine is ongoing in July 2024 in Zamzam camp".

"The main drivers of famine in Zamzam camp are conflict and lack of humanitarian access," it said.

Aid group Plan International said that "the IPC's latest report confirms what we and our fellow humanitarians have feared for months: that children in Sudan, having endured more than a year of harrowing conflict, are now dying of hunger".

Zamzam, a displacement camp in North Darfur state which hosted some 300,000 people "has swollen to half a million people in just a few weeks" due to the fighting in nearby El-Fasher, said Mohammed Qazilbash of Plan International.

Many residents have fled brutal combat in the state capital El-Fasher, the only major city in Sudan's vast western Darfur region not under paramilitary control.

Fighting erupted in April 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces after a plan to integrate them failed, with the warring generals seizing territory.

Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including deliberately targeting civilians and blocking humanitarian aid.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 10 million, according to the United Nations.

As the country has been plunged into what the UN called "one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory", the vast majority of relief operations have been suspended due to the violence.

The IPC report noted that El-Fasher airport "is not accessible for humanitarian deliveries due to insecurity", noting that the last "delivery of food assistance to Zamzam camp was in April".

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said last month that 63,000 children in Zamzam camp "qualify as malnourished", and 10 percent of them were "severely, acutely malnourished".

Another aid group, Save the Children, warned on Thursday that "in Sudan, time is running out to keep children alive".

"And yet parties to the conflict and those with international influence have failed to put an end to the fighting over and over again."