One Thousand Days of War Turn East Darfur into a Vast Displacement Camp

Sudan Media Forum

Abdelmoniem Madbou
Kampala, (Radio Dabanga)

After spending more than forty years in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, Awad Adam Khair Adam never imagined that his relationship with the city where he built his life would end so brutally. The war, which erupted suddenly, forced him to flee his home, carrying his family on a long journey of displacement, moving from one place to another in search of a safe haven that might spare them the horrors of fighting. From Khartoum to West Kordofan, then to East Darfur, each stop bore witness to a new loss and deeper uncertainty. Today, Awad lives in the city of Al-Daein alongside thousands of displaced people whom the war has pushed back to square one—where nothing is guaranteed except waiting. His story mirrors the suffering of an entire generation uprooted after decades of stability.

Awad Adam Khair Adam told Radio Dabanga that when he left his home in Khartoum, he first traveled with his family to West Kordofan, settling for a period on the outskirts of Babanusa, before being forced to flee again due to deteriorating security conditions. “We finally arrived in East Darfur after hearing that it was safer,” he said, “but we were surprised to receive no humanitarian assistance or support from organizations, despite our repeated displacement from one area to another.” He explained that what eased their suffering was the solidarity of the local community in East Darfur, where displaced families received a warm welcome, and residents shared housing, water, and available resources with them.

He noted that Al-Daein has become home to large concentrations of displaced people who arrived from different states and regions, including Singa and Wad Al-Neel, stressing that this community solidarity has been the main factor behind their resilience so far, in the absence of organized humanitarian interventions.

Similarly, Mujahid Mohammed Zidan Dalil Saleh, who worked in Khartoum for many years, recounted the details of his forced displacement, saying that the war uprooted peaceful families and forced thousands of citizens to leave their homes against their will. He added that he was displaced from Khartoum to East Darfur about a year ago under what he described as extremely difficult conditions.

Mujahid told Radio Dabanga that his family, like many others, left everything behind in Khartoum—homes, property, and sources of livelihood—without any official or humanitarian body acknowledging their suffering or attempting to assess their needs as displaced persons. He pointed out that daily challenges include the high cost of rent and the deterioration of education and health services, stressing that this hardship is not unique to his family but affects large numbers of displaced people across East Darfur.

Emergency Room Interventions

In the absence of humanitarian interventions to alleviate the suffering of displaced people, the role of the Al-Daein Humanitarian Emergency Room has become increasingly prominent. Yahya Abu Assal, the coordinator of programs and projects at the Emergency Room, said that displaced people in East Darfur are among the forgotten populations, having received humanitarian services far below their level of need.

He explained that in response to the humanitarian situation, the Emergency Room was established in the second week after the outbreak of the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces—a war that has now completed one thousand days of tragedy, leaving behind widespread displacement, forced migration, and unprecedented suffering for Sudanese men and women.

Abu Assal told Radio Dabanga that East Darfur State, with its nine localities, has received large numbers of displaced people in recent periods, leading to the emergence of new displacement camps in addition to the state’s older camps. He said that approximately 45,000 displaced people are currently distributed across the “Lagawah, Greida, Sabreen, and Al-Manara” camps in Al-Daein, noting that all these camps were newly established after the April 15 war and that they all suffer from what he described as harsh humanitarian conditions.

“The situation inside these camps is extremely dire,” he said. “Communal kitchens have shut down, families have no sources of income, and there is insufficient access to food and water, amid severe water shortages and an almost complete absence of basic services.” He emphasized that current humanitarian interventions are limited and scarce and do not match the scale of needs.

Abu Assal added that despite limited resources, the Al-Daein Emergency Room has continued to provide humanitarian services to the most vulnerable groups, including operating communal kitchens, offering free medical treatment, and distributing food baskets and essential items. However, many communal kitchens have ceased operating recently due to lack of funding. He also noted that the Emergency Room continues to provide free medical care inside hospitals for displaced people and other vulnerable groups.

Displacement Statistics

Jamal Al-Zein Mahmoud, Director of the Sudanese Relief and Humanitarian Operations Agency in East Darfur State, said that estimates indicate the presence of nearly three million displaced people within the state, in addition to eight displacement camps spread across the localities of Abu Jabra, Bahr Al-Arab, Bokarnaka, and Assalaya, as well as other camps inside Al-Daein, the state capital.

Al-Zein told Radio Dabanga that Al-Daein alone hosts eight main displacement camps, including Al-Neem Camp, which houses about 180,000 displaced people, in addition to 18,000 newly displaced persons; Al-Manara Camp, home to around 3,000 families; Lagawah Camp, which hosts 7,800 families; Sabreen Camp, housing nearly 56,000 families; and Greida Camp, which accommodates approximately 3,800 families.

He added that displacement camps are not limited to Al-Daein alone but are spread across all localities of the state, including Bokarnaka, Adila, Bahr Al-Arab, Assalaya, Yassin, and Shairiya. He noted that the largest concentrations of displaced people are found in the New Reservoir Administrative Unit of Shairiya locality, where the number of displaced persons is estimated at more than 900,000 people distributed among Al-Wahda Camp, Al-Nakheel Camp, New Reservoir Camp, and a large camp in Yassin locality, in addition to displaced people sheltering in government buildings and schools.

The agency director said that before the war, East Darfur’s population was officially estimated at around 400,000 people. However, the latest census conducted by the Sudanese Relief Agency in cooperation with organizations and UN agencies as part of a Joint Mission Assessment estimated the total population currently residing in the state at approximately 3.6 million people.

He stressed that this massive increase in the number of displaced people and refugees has placed enormous pressure on basic services, particularly in the health, food, and water sectors, worsening the humanitarian situation of displaced populations living under extremely difficult conditions amid limited assistance. He noted that only three international organizations are currently operating in the state—CARE, World Vision, and Alight—highlighting the scale of the humanitarian gap and the breadth of unmet needs.

Al-Zein also warned of the continued influx of displaced people into East Darfur from the states of Sennar, Al-Jazira, and Blue Nile, via the Al-Raqibat crossing bordering South Sudan, before entering the state—raising fears of a further deterioration in humanitarian conditions in the coming period.

An Urgent Appeal

The coordinator of programs and projects at the Al-Daein Emergency Room warned of the dire humanitarian conditions faced by newly displaced people in shelters and camps, saying that all these displaced families urgently need food, communal kitchens, water sources, and education services. He called on operating organizations and charitable actors to intensify efforts to support these shelters and camps with food supplies and funding for communal kitchens to meet urgent needs.

He noted that the Emergency Room currently supervises about 150 communal kitchens operating to cover part of the humanitarian needs, but they suffer from a severe shortage of financial support.

Jameel Allah Al-Sadiq Al-Haj, a volunteer with the Al-Daein Humanitarian Emergency Room, said that the Emergency Room has launched an urgent appeal to support displacement camps and shelters in East Darfur amid extremely harsh humanitarian conditions and urgent needs that cannot be postponed.

He explained that displaced people in camps and shelters face severe shortages of basic necessities, in addition to education needs, stressing that these requirements are critical and represent a matter of life or death for thousands of families affected by the war.

He added that the Al-Daein Emergency Room is appealing to humanitarian organizations that previously supported the camps to continue and expand their assistance, particularly in the areas of communal kitchens, shelters, water provision, and essential supplies, before humanitarian conditions worsen further. He pointed out that any support provided at this stage represents a genuine glimmer of hope for Awad Khair, Mujahid Zidan, and thousands of displaced people living under extreme hardship.

This comes amid reductions in international humanitarian funding, which prompted the World Food Programme to announce a reduction of its assistance in Sudan by approximately 70 percent.

The Sudanese Media Forum and its member institutions publish this material, prepared by Radio Dabanga, to reflect the impact of one thousand days of war in East Darfur State. The war has turned the state’s cities and villages into a vast theater of operations, leaving more than three million displaced people within the state, distributed across eight displacement camps, including camps inside the city of Al-Daein.

One thousand days of war have left people there facing extremely difficult conditions amid declining international support for humanitarian needs—underscoring the urgent importance of reaching political solutions between the warring parties to avert further deterioration of the situation.