With much of the world focused on Gaza, hundreds of thousands of people under siege in Sudan’s western Darfur region cried for attention Tuesday as they are running out of food and come under constant artillery and drone barrages.
Those who flee face the threat of cholera and violent attacks, adding to anxiety among minority Christians, who comprise roughly 4 percent of the Islamic northeast African nation’s 50 million people.
Al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur state, has become the biggest remaining frontline in the region between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a two-year war believed to have killed 150,000 people.
With fighting ongoing, about 12 million people have fled their homes in what the United Nations has called “the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.”
One doctor, who asked not to be named for her safety, said hunger was an even bigger problem than the shelling.
“The children are malnourished, the adults are malnourished. Even I today haven’t had any breakfast because I can’t find anything,” she stressed.
The RSF has blocked food supplies, and aid convoys trying to reach the city have been attacked, according to locals.
Prices for the goods that traders can smuggle in cost more than five times the national average, reporters observed.
Many people have reportedly resorted to eating hay or ambaz, a type of animal feed made out of peanut shells — but even ambaz is running out, aid workers warned.
Many residents fleeing the city have sought shelter in Tawila, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) west, witnesses said.
Some of those who made it told Reuters news agency they were attacked by groups of RSF fighters along the way.
“We fled to Shagra (village) first before getting to Tawila and they attacked us again,” recalled 19-year-old Enaam Abdallah.
“If they find your phone, they take it. Money, they take it. A donkey or anything, they’ll take it. They killed people in front of us and kidnapped girls in front of us,” she added.
On Monday, Emergency Lawyers, a human rights group, said at least 14 people fleeing al-Fashir were killed and dozens injured when they were attacked in a village along the route.
Tawila is now hosting more than half a million displaced people, most of whom arrived since April when the RSF stepped up its assault on al-Fashir.
CHOLERA CASES
Since mid-June, medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says it has treated 2,500 cases of cholera.
Some 52 people have died from the disease, according to the Coordinating Committee for Displaced People, a Sudanese advocacy group operating across Darfur.
Vaccines needed to stem the outbreak will take time to arrive due to heavy rains.
An assessment by the Norwegian Refugee Council found that only 10% of people in Tawila had reliable access to water, and even fewer had access to latrines. Most families reported eating one meal a day or less, the organization said.
“We don’t have houses to protect us from the rain and we don’t have tarps. We have to wait for the rain to stop for the children to sleep,” said mother-of-four Huda Ali, sitting among roofless shelters made of straw.
She said she tried to ensure her children washed their hands and only ate food that had been properly heated.
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