‘WFP to re-assess newly displaced in North Darfur’s Zamzam’

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) will re-assess the situation of about 11,000 displaced who sought refuge at North Darfur’s Zamzam camp last year.

The people fled their homes in East Jebel Marra and Tawila and Kutum localities after paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces attacked their villages during the first months of 2014.

The WFP has already registered and taken the fingerprints of around 35,000 newly displaced from these areas, a Zamzam camp sheikh told Radio Dabanga.

He reported that representatives of the WFP held a meeting with the camp leaders in late September, and told them that they will re-classify the food needs of 11,000 displaced who arrived at the camp in early 2014.

“We were surprised to hear that the WFP has cancelled its earlier decision to start a six-month distribution of food rations to the newly displaced on 1 October. They now told us that they would provide food to the 11,000 newly displaced only after a re-classification of their case.”

He appealed to the WFP to “revisit its decision, and support the newly displaced with food rations for a year, as they have lost all their money, property, and livestock.

“They have not received any food aid since they arrived at the camp in March last year, and could not return to cultivate their farms this season because of the sporadic rainfall and the insecure situation.”

“WFP will continue to provide the right type of assistance to the right type of people at the right time in camps and in communities across Darfur.”

Earlier in September, the WFP completed a needs inventory assessment in North Darfur’s Kutum camps that would lower the number of displaced entitled to food rations. The camp residents told Radio Dabanga that they filed a memorandum demanding the WFP reconsider the study.

WFP spokesman Amor Almagro informed Radio Dabanga last Thursday that the organisation continues to “engage with camp leaders and the displaced people in determining the best response to their evolving needs” in Kutum and other camps where assessments were completed.

The “WFP is not withdrawing support from any of the camps,” Almagro stressed. “WFP will continue to provide the right type of assistance to the right type of people at the right time in camps and in communities across Darfur.”

The UN food agency received $86 million worth of food items and cash from USAID that, according to a statement, “will allow the food programme to provide cash and vouchers assistance to almost half a million people across Darfur, for up to four months”.

The WFP plans to support 5.2 million people in need, among them 2 million internally displaced, in various areas of Sudan during the next two years. 1.8 million of these displaced live in Darfur.