Over the past several weeks, a minimum of 14 kids lost their lives as a result of severe nutrition deficiency at the Zamzam camp for displaced persons in North Darfur, Sudan. More than 300,000 residents with nowhere to go currently live in that camp, which is a little, if not utterly, insufficient in terms of feeding and necessary medical care.
The standard commodities which were ever taken for granted have now become so scarce that the situation is nearing a catastrophe.
The situation has gone from bad to worse due to the long-standing fight between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
Fighting and blocked routes have made it impossible to get the needed humanitarian aid to the people in the most dire situation. The very few health facilities in those areas are affected by the shortage of medicine, water, and staff.
Medecins Sans Frontieres acknowledged that there is an increase in malnutrition cases with a consequent rise in death, especially in children under the age of five. The organization has taken care of more than a thousand two hundred children who have been through the most extremely acute malnutrition at the camp in the month of June only.
The people who provide the aid have already been heard saying that the number of deaths is going to reach even higher if there is no emergency call for help and a continuous supply of medical support.
The United Nations have been very forceful in requesting access for humanitarian aid with no restrictions to all the affected locations in Sudan.
The World Food Programme as well as other relief agencies have to face such great difficulties as the risk of coming under attack by the enemies or the problem that it is logistically impossible to deliver their relief as quickly as they want. Several international bodies reiterate the message that, the sooner the taking of measures to avoid more deaths, the better.
Zamzam camp was set up in 2003 after the initial Darfur conflict and has become bigger due to the abandonment of the camp by people who had settled there initially because of the ongoing conflict.
The fight in the immediate vicinity of the camp has had a disastrous effect on the weak situation there which has now turned into a serious crisis with the famine reaching the whole of Sudan. In fact, a staggering 25 million and beyond the population of Sudan are at risk of hunger and need of help from outside, therefore, the time for action is now to save as many lives as possible.
