Refugee camp in Sudan under fire - panic breaks out

New escalation in Sudan: since Sunday evening, the SamSam refugee camp in the North Darfur region, where several hundred thousand people have sought refuge, has been under fire. A spokeswoman for Doctors Without Borders (MSF), one of the few remaining aid organizations on the ground, spoke of a catastrophic situation. Panic had broken out among the inhabitants and thousands were trying to flee. But there is also fighting and violence in the surrounding area.

There has also been shelling near the MSF hospital and the clinic is being evacuated, it said. "Despite the fighting in the surrounding area, SamSam, where aid organizations and UN facilities have their offices, has never come under direct fire," Mohamed Abdiladiv, interim country director of the aid organization Save the Children, told the German Press Agency. "The shelling means considerable risks, including the possible closure of the few existing health and nutrition facilities. Some organizations have already fled SamSam."

Hunger in the overcrowded camp

It is estimated that at least 500,000 people live in SamSam. Famine has already broken out in the camp. The camp has been overcrowded for months as thousands have fled the fighting in the nearby provincial capital of El Fascher.

A bloody power struggle has been raging in Sudan since April 2023 between de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. Daglo's militia RSF controls most of Darfur, while El Fascher is the last major city where the government still has control. Both parties to the conflict are accused of serious human rights violations. More than eleven million people have fled the nationwide fighting, around half of whom are children and young people.

SDA