Eastern Sudan’s Kassala denies access to displaced people from neighbouring states

In Kassala, the authorities are actively preventing displaced people from El Gezira and Sennar from entering its capital, on the pretext that the shelters are overcrowded and there are not enough places to receive them.

The Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) offensive in El Gezira in December led to a mass exodus. More have left in the months after, as food is scarce and raids and assaults persist. The entire state has been referred to as “a hell” for civilians.

Most undertake the treacherous journey on foot.

A displaced person in one of the shelters in Kassala told Radio Dabanga that the authorities transferred new arrivals to the Khashm El Girba area, where an older refugee camp is located, not far from the state of El Gedaref.

The humanitarian situation in the shelters in Kassala state is very difficult, the displaced person said. Displaced people must rely on themselves for food as humanitarian organisations are absent and little relief is provided.

The holy month of Ramadan is approaching. Yet, “so far, no assistance has been provided to us,” he said. “We do not know where to go to find the ‘aid’ that we hear about or what the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC)* and the other parties that receive it are doing with it. The HAC is responsible and entrusted with providing services to the displaced fleeing the hell of war.”

Aid organisations are struggling to operate in Sudan and only a fraction of the needed donations have been made. Both warring parties are accused of hindering humanitarian aid as a weapon of war.

Five million people in Sudan cannot afford a single meal a day, according to the World Food Programme, and more than a third of the country faces acute hunger.