The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that insecurity continues to push thousands of people across the Darfur region out of their homes, as humanitarian conditions rapidly deteriorate even further.
During a press briefing on Wednesday, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for Secretary-General António Guterres, said that in the past week alone, more than 4,000 human beings have become newly displaced in North Darfur State due to the escalating violence in El Fasher, which includes the Zamzam displacement camp just south of the city and other areas. He stated that famine conditions have been confirmed in Zamzam.
“Families fleeing – including many women and children –need urgent shelter, they need food, they need water, and they need medical supplies. But severe funding gaps and logistical challenges are hampering the ability of aid organizations to respond. One partner at Zamzam camp told our colleagues that rising costs and fuel shortages have forced the suspension of water trucking for newly displaced people there,” he said. “OCHA says that since April 2023, more than 400,000 men, women, and children have been displaced within or from El Fasher locality, when these latest rounds of hostilities began. Across the country, hostilities continue to put civilians at risk. In Khartoum state, intensified fighting disrupted a period of calm in the western neighborhoods of Omdurman.”
Dujarric added: “There are also reports of newly displaced civilians who urgently need protection and humanitarian assistance.”
He said that in northern Sudan, drone attacks earlier this week forced the suspension of operations at the Merowe Dam, triggering widespread power outages across several states. The strikes reportedly caused civilian casualties and damaged critical infrastructure, underscoring the growing impact of the conflict on essential services.
“The UN calls – yet again – for an immediate cessation of hostilities and unhindered humanitarian access across Sudan,” Dujarric stated. “The UN also urges donors to scale up funding to keep life-saving services running and to help agencies reach people in need in areas hit by violence and acute hunger.”
Turning to South Sudan, he said Nicholas Haysom, the Head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), is continuing his intensive diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions between the rival parties.
“This week he (Haysom) met with Vice President Taban Deng Gai and emphasized, once again, the need for parties to reinvigorate their commitment to the 2018 peace deal and its structures, as well as use dialogue rather than engage in conflict to reduce the current tensions,” he said. “Meanwhile, on the ground, UN peacekeepers say that security conditions in Upper Nile State are fragile due to the ongoing clashes, particularly in Ulang County.”
“The peacekeeping mission – and as part of its mandate to provide protection to civilians, which is even more important now as tensions continue to rise – has had to intensify its presence around and within the camps for displaced communities, patrolling by day and by night, to provide additional security for the people,” Dujarric added.