Doctors Without Borders suspends aid in Sudan refugee camp

Aid organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is suspending all its medical aid in the Zamzam camp, a famine-stricken refugee camp in North Darfur that is home to half a million refugees. The organization announced this in a press release on Monday. Despite the "enormous humanitarian need," the organization says it is no longer "responsible to work in the camp."

In recent weeks, violence has escalated near the refugee camp as the paramilitary rebel group Rapid Support Forces (RSF), one of the warring parties in Sudan’s ongoing civil war, tries to maintain its grip on the region as government forces seize ground in the capital, Khartoum.

The ongoing violence also puts aid workers at risk. In December and January, two AzG ambulances were shot at. AzG does not mention names in the press release, but according to Reuters news agency, the RSF regularly attacks the camp.

Not designed for surgical procedures

The situation is so serious that patients can no longer be taken to the hospital in the nearby town of Al-Fashir, where the wounded are receiving life-saving surgery. As a result, 11 patients, including five children, have already died, AzG said.

Doctors at Zamzam camp treated 139 patients in the first three weeks of February, mostly people with gunshot wounds and shrapnel injuries. However, the hospital is not equipped to perform surgical procedures.

Doctors Without Borders' main goal is to combat hunger in the camp. According to aid organizations, famine threatens six million Sudanese, partly because the warring parties are blocking aid supplies.

According to RSF, Reuters writes, Camp Zamzam is a home base for the pro-government Joint Forces fighting group, something the Joint Forces deny.