Starvation in three camps of South Darfur after pull out aid organizations

Children have died due to malnutrition after aid organizations pulled out of three camps, 40 kilometers outside the South Darfur capital of Nyala. Community leaders have urged aid organizations to resume health and food support in the displaced camps of Mershing, Manaoshi and Duma in South Darfur.

Children have died due to malnutrition after aid organizations pulled out of three camps, 40 kilometers outside the South Darfur capital of Nyala. Community leaders have urged aid organizations to resume health and food support in the displaced camps of Mershing, Manaoshi and Duma in South Darfur.

Community leaders gave Radio Dabanga an emotional account of what happened. In the past week tens of children and several elderly people died of to malnutrition. The community leader says that starvation is the result of the aid organizations stopped providing food rations to IDPs for more than eight months. He added that since circumstances are increasingly challenging an insufficient number of health centers near the IDP camps. Although there are private clinics in Mershing, many IDPs can not afford to pay the fees they charge. The Sheikh appealed to the authorities and humanitarian organizations to quickly intervene to prevent massive hunger.

Camp leaders told Radio Dabanga that around 60 percent of camp residents are suffering of continuous hunger, since food rations were stopped, forcing some to go for days without a meal. One leader said they have been complaining for months about the situation with no help coming from the international community, or any serious moves to help displaced people in the South Darfur camps. He said the camp residents have unanimously decided that if they do not get a response from the World Food Programme or the government’s humanitarian aid commission within the next few days they will be forced to leave the camps and move the inhabitants to another place where they can access food and avoid starvation.