Sudan conflict: Aid group says children at risk of dying in Darfur as RSF blocks medical supplies
File photo of the Zamzam camp in Sudan.
Aid group Doctors Without Borders said on Sunday (Aug 4) that malnourished children in a famine-hit camp for war-displaced people in Sudan's Darfur region are at risk of dying due to medical supplies being blocked by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The conflict in Sudan began in April last year when simmering tensions betweenthe military and the RSF developed into open fighting in the capital, before spreading across the country. The conflict has killed thousands of people and pushed many into starvation.
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Doctors Without Borders said on Sunday that the RSF blocked three trucks carrying lifesaving medical supplies, including therapeutic food, for Darfur's Al-Fashir city and the nearby Zamzam camp, where famine was confirmed earlier, the news agency Associated Press reported.
A full famine at Zamzam camp
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Last week, experts in theFamine Review Committee confirmed that starvation at the Zamzam camp had grown into a full famine. The camp shelters up to 600,000 people. Doctors Without Borders said on Sunday that many children in the camp were in critical condition, adding, that the malnutrition ward at its field hospital was overcrowded with a 126 per cent bed occupancy rate.
The aid group also said RSF fighters have blocked the trucks in the town of Kabkabiya for over a month, and that it was forced to limit the number of children receiving therapeutic food in the overcrowded camp as its stock of medicine covers only two weeks.
Govt denies famine at camp
Also on Sunday, Sudanese officials denied the existence of famine at the Zamzam camp. The officials said thattalk of famine was inaccurate and conditions were "not consistent" with those that must be met to declare famine.
The government blamed the RSF for imposing the blockade in Al-Fashir. The paramilitary group, meanwhile, declared full solidaritywith victims of the famine and repeated an offer to work with the United Nations to facilitate the delivery of aid.
(With inputs from agencies)