95 Sudanese die of hunger and disease in displacement camp
95 people, including 73 children, have died of hunger and disease in Sudan’s Abu Shouk displacement camp over the past 40 days, according to Middle East Monitor on September 29th.
The Abu Shouk camp emergency room, which is a local activist group tracking regional developments, released a statement illustrating the severity of conditions in the camp.
“More than 73 children under the age of five and 22 elderly people have died in the last 40 days due to hunger and disease among displaced residents of Abu Shouk camp who had fled to shelters and residential areas in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State in western Sudan.”
The statement also declared that security and humanitarian conditions in famine-stricken El-Fasher are rapidly deteriorating as it is deprived of basic services. The city has been besieged by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since May 2024 as part of a campaign to wrest control from the Sudanese military, with whom they have been at war since April 2023.
Since El-Fasher is the final major urban centre in the vast western region of Darfur that is still under military control, it has been subjected to near-constant large-scale attacks by the RSF.
Many analysts worry that if the RSF – who recently established a parallel government to rival the military-backed administration – are successful in seizing full control of the city, it could lead to the partition of Sudan.
Speaking to The Guardian on September 27th, one resident explained that since the military reclaimed the capital Khartoum in April 2025, the RSF has ramped up its shelling of El-Fasher. The resident said that such assaults occur “from three or four in the morning, often until late.”
The Abu Shouk emergency room explained that there are no sources of clean water or food in El-Fasher, especially for displaced people who have been cut off from communal kitchens. It stated that the health sector in the city is completely non-functional.
The lack of medical infrastructure has led to “a health disaster due to bodies scattered across the city’s neighbourhoods and streets, where the security situation does not even allow proper burials.”
The committee urged the international community to protect civilians, allow aid entry, and provide routes out of the city. US President Donald Trump’s senior Africa advisor, Massad Boulos, revealed on September 24th that an agreement with the RSF to implement a humanitarian aid delivery system for the city of El-Fasher is being finalised.
Middle East Monitor, Maghrebi.org, The Guardian
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