Doctors Without Borders halts work in Sudan's camp with 500,000 amid escalating violence

Doctors Without Borders on Monday halted its operations in Sudan's famine-stricken Zamzam camp due to an escalation of attacks and fighting in the vicinity.

The international medical aid group, also known by its French name Médecins Sans Frontières and acronym MSF, said fighting between the Sudanese military and its rival paramilitary the Rapid Support Forces intensified in the camp in North Darfur.

The escalation made it “impossible” for the group to provide lifesaving humanitarian help to thousands of displaced people, it said in a statement, adding it had suspended all activities in Zamzam, including at its field hospital.

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“Halting our project in the midst of a worsening disaster in Zamzam is a heartbreaking decision,” said Yahya Kalilah, the group's head of mission in Sudan.

Kalilah said that being close to violence, experiencing great difficulty in sending supplies, dealing with the “impossibility” of sending experienced staff, and the uncertainty around routes out of the camp, left MSF with “little choice.”

Sudan plunged into a civil war in April 2023 when fighting erupted between the military and the RSF. The conflict has killed more than 24,000 people, forced over 14 million people out of their homes and created famine in various parts of the country.

The fighting in Zamzam ramped up on Feb. 11-12, according to the MSF. The field hospital received 130 wounded patients, most suffering from gunshot and shrapnel wounds.

The MSF facility in Zamzam can't provide trauma surgery for those in critical condition as it was originally established to address the significant malnutrition crisis unfolding in the camp.

Kalilah said that 11 patients died in the hospital, including five children, because staff couldn't treat them properly or refer them to the hospital in El Fasher, the regional capital. Access to water and food in the area has been more compromised because of the fighting, according to the MSF. The central market has been looted and burned.

Zamzam camp hosts around 500,000 people and has seen displaced families newly arriving from the areas of Abu Zerega, Shagra, and Saluma, who told MSF teams of abuses in villages and roads in the El Fasher locality that include killings, sexual violence, lootings and beatings.

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“In January and December, two of our ambulances carrying patients from the camp to El Fasher were shot at," Kalilah said. "Now it's even more dangerous and as a result, many people, including patients requiring trauma surgery or emergency caesarean sections, are trapped in Zamzam.”