Famine-hit Sudan camp gets first aid convoy in months

SUDAN: A famine-stricken camp housing about 500,000 displaced people in Sudan has received its first convoy of aid in months.

The United Nations’ trucks arrived in Zamzam – which houses masses forced to flee during Sudan’s 18-month civil war – on Friday.

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said food deliveries had been held up for months by fierce fighting in the nearby Darfur city of el-Fasher, as well as the “impassable” roads brought on by the rainy season.

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The war – a power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, forcing 10 million people from their homes and pushing communities into hunger.

The population of Zamzam has reportedly ballooned since April, when the RSF began battling to take el-Fasher from the army. El-Fasher is the only city still under military control in the western region of Darfur.

In August, an independent group of food security experts determined that the war had pushed Zamzam into famine.