Doctors Without Borders: Aid Must Reach Zamzam Camp Urgently, Including Through Airdrops

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Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced that a significant amount of humanitarian aid has not reached the population in Zamzam Camp and the city of El Fasher, despite agreements made at the Geneva conference on humanitarian aid to Sudan. The organization blamed the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which control most of the supply routes, making it nearly impossible to deliver therapeutic food, medicines, and essential supplies to the camp.

In a statement issued today, Friday, MSF warned that the food situation is catastrophic and continues to deteriorate. Among the more than 29,000 children under the age of five screened last week during a vaccination campaign in Zamzam Camp, 10.1% were found to suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), while 34.8% were suffering from global acute malnutrition (GAM).

MSF called on the United Nations and international entities involved in negotiating broader humanitarian access to consider all options for delivering food and essential supplies quickly to the area, including via airdrops.

The organization explained that the only food available is pre-existing stock, which is insufficient for the people living in the area, and that food prices are at least three times higher than in the rest of Darfur. Fuel prices are also rising, making it extremely difficult to pump water and run clinics that rely on generators. MSF staff on the ground reported that for many people, it is impossible to depend on more than one meal a day.

Claudine Meier, MSF’s medical advisor, stated, "The malnutrition rates found during the screenings are staggering and may be among the worst in the world right now."

Meier added, "With supplies critically low, we have reached a breaking point and recently had to reduce our activities to focus solely on children in the most severe conditions. This means we had to suspend treatment for less severe cases of malnutrition, affecting an active group of 2,700 children, and halt consultations for adults and children over five years old, which accounted for thousands of consultations each month."

Michel-Olivier Lacharité, MSFs Head of Emergency Operations, warned, "Things are getting worse every day, and time is running out. We are talking about thousands of children who will die in the coming weeks without the appropriate treatment and urgent solutions to allow humanitarian aid and essential goods to reach Zamzam."