Hunger and malnutrition have caused 32 deaths in Sudan’s Belil refugee camp, said Awatif Abdirahman Yusuf, president of the Association of Displaced Women in South Darfur.
The official was quoted by the “Sudan News” website as saying that they visited the refugee camp in the past days, where they witnessed a great tragedy due to the lack of food among the refugees, and Youssef explained that the refugees told them that they had 13 children who died of malnutrition, in addition to 19 other men and women, according to her.
The head of the Displaced Women’s Association added that “the displaced in the Scully camp, south of the city of Nyala, suffer severely from food shortages, lack of job opportunities in the camp and the interruption of basic services such as water and health.”
Youssef pointed out that “the displaced are threatened with starvation, in addition to the suspension of basic services such as water and health, since the outbreak of the war on April 15,” warning of “a possible humanitarian disaster in the camp, within the next two weeks, if food aid and medicines do not arrive to save the displaced.”
“If two weeks pass without the arrival of relief, the displaced will be on a date with a major humanitarian disaster,” Youssef said, noting that “in the past, the displaced had opportunities to work to provide a few of their living needs, as women used to work in the brick industry and hunt locusts to provide food for their children, but now there are not even locusts.”
Awatif Youssef concluded by calling on the international community and the United Nations to quickly save the lives of displaced people and refugees in Darfur camps from the threat of famine that threatens their lives.
For 11 months, violent and large-scale clashes between the Sudanese army forces and the Rapid Support Forces have continued in different areas of Sudan, mostly concentrated in the capital, Khartoum, leaving hundreds of civilians dead and wounded.
The differences between the President of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council and the Commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the Commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, came to light after the signing of the “Framework Agreement” establishing the transitional period between the military and civilian components, on December 5, 2022, which recognized the army’s exit from politics and the handover of power to civilians.
Dagalo accused the Sudanese army of planning to stay in power and not handing over power to civilians, after the army demanded that the Rapid Support Forces be integrated under the banner of the armed forces, while the army considered the movements of the Rapid Support Forces a rebellion against the state.
Arab, African and international parties brokered a ceasefire, but these mediations did not succeed in reaching a permanent cessation of hostilities.
