Residents of Zamzam camp in North Darfur, Sudan, staged a protest on Sunday, calling for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to lift the siege that has caused severe food and supply shortages. The RSF took control of Dar es Salaam on September 11, blocking the only route to the camp and detaining local businessmen. The blockade has worsened the already dire humanitarian crisis, leading to increased water prices and a critical lack of food, leaving 500,000 displaced people at risk of starvation.
Camp spokesperson Mohamed Khamis Doda reported that many lives are at risk due to shortages of essential medicines and water. He described how the blockade has depleted fuel supplies, which damaged water wells, leading to unaffordable water prices. Food shortages have worsened to the point where residents are now consuming leftover peanut and millet, typically used as animal feed.
Doda stressed that newly arrived displaced people from El Fasher are suffering the most, seeking refuge in makeshift shelters without any aid. He called for urgent international intervention to pressure the RSF into lifting the siege on both Zamzam and El Fasher.
The United Nations Development Programme issued a famine alert in August for the Zamzam camp, home to half a million displaced people, but Sudanese authorities dismissed the alert, blaming the RSF’s blockade for food shortages. Residents of El Fasher had relied on a western supply route through Tawila, east of Jebel Marra, before the RSF blocked it. Restrictions on commercial convoys in that area by the Sudan Liberation Movement have further compounded the crisis.