Shelling in North Darfur’s Famine-Stricken Zamzam Displacement Camp: INGOs Condemn Escalating Violence and Call for Urgent Civilian Protection

03 December 2024

Intense bombardment by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of Sudan’s largest camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) is devastating civilians and forcing aid workers to leave the site, INGOs working in Sudan warned today.

Zamzam camp, which currently hosts an estimated half a million displaced people, has been targeted by unprecedented RSF attacks over the last two days. Local responders in the camp report at least eight civilian deaths and multiple injuries. Many organisations have been forced to evacuate staff due to the unsafe conditions. One aid worker on the ground reported:

“Sunday, at 5.30pm, we heard a shelling in the South part of the camp. This is the first time that Zamzam has been bombed. People were shocked, scared and immediately went into hiding. Up to 7 shells happened in the minutes that followed. We soon learned that there had been deaths and injuries. How could it be otherwise in this overcrowded camp?”

The next day, around 9.30am, just as we and many others were preparing to evacuate the camp, bombings targeted the camp again, this time in the East, not far from the main market. This was followed by a dozen in the South East...We managed to escape a few kilometers away. In Zamzam, nobody is safe anymore.”

Ongoing violence has come on top of significant access restrictions to the camp which have deprived people facing starvation of much needed humanitarian assistance. In August 2024, the Famine Review Committee of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification confirmed famine conditions in Zamzam. INGOs and partners have been delivering assistance, but access has remained challenging and aid has not been possible at the scale needed.

The attacks on Zamzam IDP camp mark an escalation in violence on a site which has previously been spared from active hostilities, although it is consistent with a pattern of attacks on other IDP camps, including Abu Shouk and Nefasha camps where 13 people were reportedly killed by RSF shelling on October 6-7. This underscores the reality that there are now no safe places for people to flee to in North Darfur.

Zamzam camp hosts displaced people from all over the greater Darfur region, with many of the newly arrived residents displaced from El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, which has been facing intense hostilities over the past nine months. The civilians who remain trapped in El Fasher have been almost entirely cut off from assistance as siege and bombings of the city continue unabated.

INGOs call on all parties to the conflict to show restraint, and respect for international humanitarian law (IHL), by ensuring the protection and safety of civilians, civilian infrastructure and all humanitarian workers, including those working for local and national partners, their premises and assets. INGOs also call on the parties to preserve neutral, impartial, and independent humanitarian space by immediately securing unfettered humanitarian access to all people in need across the country.

INGOs call on UN Member States for a diplomatic surge at the highest levels - including the personal involvement of Heads of State - to put pressure on the parties to the conflict, and their backers, to comply with IHL and immediately end attacks targeting civilians, and to allow unfettered humanitarian access, not contingent on political negotiations or a ceasefire.

Measures need to be instituted now to save lives and mitigate ongoing and future civilian harm.

The Sudan INGO Forum is the coordination and representation body for the international non- governmental organization (INGO) community in Sudan. The Forum is currently comprised of 72 members and observer members providing humanitarian and development assistance and peacebuilding interventions across all 18 states of Sudan.

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