Famine declared in Sudan's North Darfur Zamzam camp by UN hunger monitor

Famine is likely to persist at the camp until October as escalating violence restricts humanitarian access

Women and babies at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan. Reuters

Escalating violence in Sudan has severely restricted humanitarian access and pushed parts of North Darfur into famine, notably Zamzam camp for displaced people, according to a report by a global food security monitor.

Areas including the camp, 12km south of El Fasher, which has a population of more than 500,000, are experiencing “the worst form of hunger”, known as Phase 5 on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an internationally recognised standard.

It is only the third time a famine determination has been made since the system was set up 20 years ago.

Thursday’s United Nations-backed report says: “Restrictions on humanitarian access, including intentional impediments imposed by the active parties to the conflict, have severely restricted the capability of aid organisations to scale up their response efforts effectively.

“These obstructions have critically hindered the delivery of necessary aid and exacerbated the food crisis, driving some households into famine conditions.”

The Famine Review Committee, which reviewed the IPC analyses, said Phase 5 famine in Zamzam camp, one of the largest camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Sudan, will continue to the end of October

It highlighted that “similar conditions are likely prevailing in other IDP sites in the El Fasher area, notably in Abu Shouk and Al Salam camps”, underlining the urgent need to assess the size of populations in these areas, along with their food security, nutrition and health conditions.

More than 15 months of war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have created the world’s biggest internal displacement crisis and left 25 million people – half the population – in urgent need of humanitarian aid.

Persistent, intense and widespread clashes have forced many residents to seek refuge in the camps, where they face a stark reality: basic services are scant or absent, compounding the hardship of displacement, the report says.

“Around 320,000 people are believed to have been displaced since mid-April in El Fasher. Around 150,000 to 200,000 of them are believed to have moved to Zamzam camp in search of security, basic services, and food since mid-May. The camp population has expanded to over half a million in a few weeks,” it says.

The IPC partnership includes more than a dozen UN agencies, aid groups and governments that use the classification as a global reference for analysis of food and nutrition crises