Sudan’s Zamzam refugee camp: children’s lives on the brink as medical and food supplies dry up

The warning over essential supplies at North Darfur’s Zamzam camp comes after families and children have endured seven months of living in famine conditions, with crippling food shortages and a lack of basic services. Heavy shelling and heightened violence in recent weeks have put children at increased risk and further complicated efforts to deliver humanitarian assistance, with access to the camp now nearly impossible, the aid agency said.

Time is running out for the nearly one million residents of Sudan’s biggest refugee camp, many of whom are children, with food and medical supplies nearly  depleted and Save the Children warning that it has just two days of medical supplies left in its mobile health clinics. 

The warning over essential supplies at North Darfur’s Zamzam camp comes after families and children have endured seven months of living in famine conditions, with crippling food shortages and a lack of basic services. Heavy shelling and heightened violence in recent weeks have put children at increased risk and further complicated efforts to deliver humanitarian assistance, with access to the camp now nearly impossible, the aid agency said.

Even before recent escalation in violence and the destruction of the camp’s main market, displaced families were facing extreme food shortages and resorting to desperate measures to survive—including consuming animal feed. Stocks of essential medicines and therapeutic foods were already exhausted, leading to alarming levels of malnutrition. 

Save the Children has a significant stock of medicine, chlorine water treatment materials, and other medical equipment in a warehouse in Tawila, about 60 km (37 miles) west of Zamzam. However, insecurity and road closures are likely to hinder efforts to get these supplies to the camp.

Mohamed Abdiladif, Save the Children’s Country Director for Sudan, said:   

“For several months now, our staff in the camp have observed children with visible signs of severe acute malnutrition, chest infections, skin diseases, and clear evidence of widespread diarrhea. We continue to do whatever it takes to help communities, but our efforts have consistently been hampered by crippling stock out of essential medicines and therapeutic foods and lack of flexible funding. 

“Today, the situation is getting worse with families and children facing severe food shortages and medical supplies running out. Save the Children mobile clinics, which have been critical in providing basic health services to displaced people in Zamzam, cannot sustain operation for more than two days with the remaining stock of medical supplies and might have to close soon. 

“While direct attacks on the camp have stopped for now, insecurity persists, and displaced families have lost critical humanitarian support. We expect already dire conditions for children and families in Zamzam to deteriorate rapidly in the coming days. In addition to those still in the camp, hundreds of families fled during month’s fighting—many with little to no supplies—leaving them isolated and in urgent need of assistance.

“We will continue to operate but the needs are enormous. Children are always famine’s first victims and are already facing avoidable and excruciating deaths due to malnutrition and disease. Without immediate action, more young lives will be lost.

“There is no humanitarian solution to this crisis—only a political one. We are calling on the international community to urgently redouble efforts to demand a ceasefire to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access and a drastic scale-up of humanitarian assistance. This includes securing safe passage for food, medical aid, commercial supplies, and critical nutrition interventions for children suffering from wasting.”

Save the Children continues to provide critical humanitarian support to the displaced populations in Zamzam, particularly through its mobile health services, delivering essential medical care to displaced populations, although operations may be affected if the security situation deteriorates and there is no safe passage food and medical aid into the camp. 

Nearly two years into conflict, Sudan faces an unprecedented humanitarian health crisis, according to the World Health Organizaton, with 30.4 million people—over half the population—requiring assistance in 2025, including 16 million children. The conflict has caused the world’s largest and fastest-growing displacement crisis, with 12.8 million forcibly displaced.

Save the Children has worked in Sudan since 1983 and is currently supporting children and their families across Sudan providing health, nutrition, education, child protection and food security and livelihoods support. Save the Children is also supporting refugees from Sudan in Egypt and South Sudan.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Save the Children.