Newly displaced families pour into North Darfur camp

The number of newly displaced people who arrived at Zamzam camp in El Fasher locality, North Darfur, has amounted to about 219 families on Thursday. The families have fled the rural areas of El Fasher city and Korma, where they lost their possessions during attacks of pro-government militias, and are lacking shelter and food.An activist inside Zamzam camp told Radio Dabanga that about 82 families arrived on Thursday, in addition to the displaced who had arrived in the past three days. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), about 8,465 people have arrived at the camp up until Thursday, since January this year. Access, departures denied“The government authorities have denied the organisations access to Zamzam”, the activist added. A sheikh of the camp told Radio Dabanga that the security forces denied representatives from Unamid and Unicef access to Zamzam on 26 March. “The UN agencies intended to assess the conditions of the newly displaced. Several people who had fled the Rapid Support Forces’ attacks told us that the authorities had denied about 30,000 displaced from leaving the area of Shagra.” The activist speaking to Radio Dabanga confirmed that 100 families have remained in Shagra area after they had failed to move further, owing to exhaustion, hunger and thirst. He described their situation as “serious, and in considerable need of urgent aid”. The camp sheikh told Radio Dabanga on Monday that during the week before, about 8,500 newly displaced arrived at the camp. The people fled from the Rapid Support Forces’ attacks on Sarafaya, 5km west of El Fasher, from Uzbani, Korma and Kobe, also in El Fasher locality, and from East Jebel Marra. Map: Zamzam camp for internally displaced people, south of El Fasher Related: Nine displaced children reach North Darfur camp after three-day walk (1 April 2014)