Government authorities impose blockade on Zamzam

Government authorities yesterday blockaded Zamzam Camp from morning until the evening, preventing entry and exit of aid workers, doctors and teachers living in El Fasher. Residents trying to leave the camp were also stopped. Witness accounts suggested the blockade may have been related to military movements past the camp. Witnesses in the camp told Radio Dabanga that a troop of soldiers arrived near the camp at 5:00 in the evening on Tuesday. The troop was traveling in 44 military vehicles. The soldiers stormed the camp market, killing a donkey and causing residents to flee from the shops.

That military force stayed until 7:30  in the evening Tuesday and then moved to the south of the camp at a distance of two kilometers. They spent the night there before going in the morning yesterday toward Abu Zereiga.

A state of fear prevailed in the camp yesterday and the market did not open.

Speaking over Radio Dabanga, residents of the camp said that the UN – African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) was absent yesterday. None of its forces showed up at the camp, or in the surroundings, during the events that transpired yesterday and before. The displaced people criticized the absence of UNAMID, which they said should have been present to see what was happening.

The blockade on Zamzam camp yesterday lasted from six o’clock in the morning until six in the evening.