Many Darfur displaced affected by the cold

The cold wave that currently strikes Darfur is causing catarrhs and inflammations in the chest to many people living in the camps for the displaced, especially children and the elderly.

A sheikh in Zamzam camp for the displaced near El Fasher, capital of North Darfur told Radio Dabanga that many camp residents had to be transferred to a hospital in El Fasher for treatment.

“The displaced live in shelters mostly built of plastic sheets, straw, and cardboard. These are tattered by the rain and the sun. Moreover, the people are short of blankets and covers,” he explained.

The sheikh appealed via Radio Dabanga to “humanitarian organisations and philanthropists to provide urgent aid to those affected especially blankets and covers”.

In Kalma camp near the South Darfur capital of Nyala, school classes were suspended because of the extreme cold.

Saleh Eisa, Secretary-General of the camp, said that there are more than 160,000 displaced in Kalma who do not have enough covers to protect them from the cold. “Most of them are living in tents made of wooden poles and plastic sheets that do not hold against the rain and the biting cold winds.”

The National Meteorology Organisation expects the cold wave that began on Tuesday, accompanied by late rains, to continue until the beginning of next week. The spokesman for the organisation, Nurelbalad Fadlallah, said that the temperature dropped to 12 degrees in the western and northern states of Sudan.