With famine confirmed in the Zamzam displacement camp in Sudan's North Darfur, there are growing concerns that similar crises may be unfolding in other nearby camps, an official with the UN emergency food relief agency (WFP) said on Wednesday, in an interview with UN News.
The Zamzam camp houses about 500,000 displaced persons and is located near North Dufur's besieged capital, El Fasher, which has witnessed some of the fiercest fighting since the start of the war between rival militaries Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last April.
An estimated 10.7 million people have been displaced within Sudan, and a further 2.1 million have sought refuge in neighbouring countries. The fighting has also precipitated an acute hunger crisis, with almost 26 million struggling to secure daily meals.
Access very difficult
In an exclusive interview with UN News, Leni Kinzli, Head of Communications at the World Food Programme (WFP) in Sudan, told Abdelmonem Makki that as many as 13 other areas across the war-ravaged country are also at risk of famine.
These are areas with active conflicts such as in Darfur, Kordofan and Khartoum, which are worsening by the day and making assessments very difficult, she said.
"Access to the camps that are inside El Fasher, where fighting continues to intensify day by day between the paramilitary RSF and the SAF, make it extremely difficult to access," she added.
