Darfur camp blockade forces MSF to halt child malnutrition treatment

October 10, 2024 (EL FASHER) – Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Thursday it had been forced to halt treatment for 5,000 malnourished children in Sudan’s Zamzam camp, including 2,900 with severe acute malnutrition, after running out of supplies.

The medical charity said warring parties had blocked deliveries of food, medicine and other essential aid for months, leaving it unable to replenish its stock, which was exhausted at the end of September.

“We had to stop treatment for 5,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition in Zamzam camp, including 2,900 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition,” MSF said in a statement.

Zamzam camp, located near El Fasher in North Darfur, is home to 450,000 people displaced by conflict. Fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, which erupted in mid-April, has severely hampered aid access to the camp.

The United Nations declared a famine in Zamzam in August. MSF said previous assessments indicated that 30% of children in the camp were malnourished and estimated that one child was dying every two hours from malnutrition-related causes.

“Only the organization’s hospital, which has 80 beds to treat the most vulnerable children, remains in Zamzam camp,” MSF said.

It added that while some limited supplies had been delivered in recent weeks, these were insufficient to meet the population’s needs.

Michel-Olivier Lacharité, MSF’s head of emergencies, said there was an urgent need for large quantities of food and nutritional products.

“In the past few days, we have seen some positive signs, with trucks arriving after months of near-total blockade around the camp, but it is not enough,” he said.

Providing emergency food rations for one month to the residents of Zamzam camp requires about 2,000 tonnes of supplies, meaning 100 trucks would be needed to deliver the required rations each month, MSF said.