Activists warn of famine, disaster risk in Sudan’s Umbada amid shortages
April 13, 2025 (KHARTOUM) – Activists warned on Sunday of a lack of drinking water, food, and medicine in the Umbada area west of Omdurman, Khartoum state, threatening a health disaster and famine that could primarily affect children and pregnant women.
The warning comes as the Sudanese army intensifies military operations aimed at seizing the last strongholds of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Umbada and the Al-Salha area to its south. The army recently gained control over the localities of Khartoum, Bahri, and East Nile.
The Umbada Emergency Room committee, a local response group, said in a report seen by the Sudan Tribune that “the lack of drinking water, food, and medicine threatens a health disaster, actual famine, and further loss of life, especially among the most vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children, and pregnant women.”
The report stated the area faces critical humanitarian conditions due to armed clashes that have erupted in various parts of the locality, leading to escalating violence and numerous casualties, including women and children.
The committee’s report also detailed cases of forced detention of civilians inside homes and police stations by RSF forces.
It noted that the deteriorating security situation has caused large waves of displacement within the Dar es Salaam neighbourhood of Umbada, amid a dire collapse in living conditions.
Economic activity has almost completely halted after the closure of the main Libya Market and smaller markets in Dar es Salaam, either entirely or intermittently, the report added.
On April 8, the army seized strategic sites in western Umbada, including the Al-Nusour camp belonging to the Central Reserve Police and the Konan camp, both military bases previously used by the RSF.
The report detailed that the area is suffering from a cutoff of drinking water after power outages disabled all the groundwater wells that served as the main water source for residents in the local neighbourhood blocks (known as ‘squares’).
Residents face a “stifling economic siege” due to the closure of supply routes leading to major markets like Sabreen and Al-Hurr in northern Omdurman, and the Libya Market to the west, the report said. This has led to an alarming spread of malnutrition-related diseases and soaring commodity prices.
All hospitals and health centers in the Dar es Salaam neighbourhood and surrounding areas have ceased operations, leaving residents without access to basic medical care, according to the report.
It stated that Al-Rajhi Hospital in western Omdurman had received around 37 serious injury cases as of Saturday, but faced depleted medicines, medical supplies, and a lack of beds, forcing some families to take patients home without treatment.
The army’s operations in west Omdurman aim to reach the national Omdurman-Bara road and impose a siege on the remaining RSF forces located in the Dar es Salaam neighbourhoods and in Al-Salha to the south, according to observers.