Several displaced women who fled to the Al-Kuma Locality from Al-Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur State, due to ongoing fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have complained about deplorable humanitarian conditions.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Monday, Amal Abdallah Adam, expressed gratitude to the Al-Kuma community for hosting and providing services to the displaced persons but said they have to endure severe water shortages and high water prices at the sheltering houses.
“We need water tanks and drinking water in the sheltering houses, in addition to other necessities, especially shelter materials,” she stressed.
Another IDP who resides at Imam Ali School Sheltering House, Husna Ali Aseel, highlighted the dire conditions resulting from the war, including the lack of services, food, cash, halted state salaries, and shortages of household items and lack of shelter, blankets, clothing, and children’s basic needs.
“We urgently need food, medicine, and mosquito nets, and there is a need for combating mosquitoes and stagnant water during the rainy season,” she appealed. “We urge organizations and the government to intervene to save the situation.”
For her part, Zahra Al-Tom, who fled from Al-Fasher to Al-Kuma during Ramadan, lamented that some of them live in the open and are exposed to the elements, especially during the current rainy season. She echoed the appeal for organizations to urgently come to their aid.
Meanwhile, Salih Harireen, the head of the Emergency Room Committee in Al-Kuma, confirmed that they have continued to provide meals from the communal kitchen to the displaced persons in the sheltering houses and within the locality for the last four days since the kitchen was launched.
“This initiative (kitchen) aims to alleviate the suffering of the displaced people. We are now in the rainy season and experiencing heavy rains,” he stated. “Some people do not have shelter and there is a severe food shortage and a rise in the prices of essential goods.”
The Al-Kuma Locality has more than 23 sheltering houses which accommodate a significant number of IDPs and those who are fleeing the war and are in dire need of tarpaulin and mosquito nets.
Harireen renewed his call and appealed to international and regional organizations, benefactors, and all civil society organizations to urgently intervene to improve the humanitarian situation and contain the crises in Al-Kuma.