Paris – This month’s nutrition screening by Sudanese health authorities and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at Zamzam camp in North Darfur paints a grim picture: malnutrition is spiraling out of control. Supplies are running dry, forcing us to pull back on services. The United Nations and international stakeholders in humanitarian negotiations must explore all avenues, including airdrops, to swiftly deliver food and essentials.
“These results only reinforce the calamity we’ve been alerting about for months—daily, things worsen, and time’s ticking away,” said Michel Olivier Lacharité, head of emergency operations for MSF. “We’re staring at the potential loss of thousands of children in the coming weeks if we don’t act fast to get humanitarian aid and vital supplies to Zamzam.”
Despite some hopeful rhetoric from peace talks in Geneva in mid-August, tangible aid hasn’t trickled into Zamzam or nearby El-Fasher since early August. This was when the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Famine Review Committee declared the area in famine.
Restricted supply routes, controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have been a significant barrier. The escalation of conflict around El Fasher since May has made it almost impossible to deliver therapeutic food, medicines, and critical supplies to the camp.
“We are at a pivot where thousands of children face a dire fate in the coming weeks unless we intervene with urgent solutions,” reiterated Lacharité.
Time is perilously short to prevent unnecessary deaths. Among the 29,000 children under five who were screened last week during a vaccination campaign at Zamzam, 10% face severe acute malnutrition—a life-threatening condition. Another 34% suffer from global acute malnutrition, which, if untreated, will escalate to severe acute malnutrition.
“The malnutrition rates uncovered during this screening are staggeringly high, likely among the worst currently on record globally,” noted Claudine Mayer, MSF’s medical referent. “It’s alarming because these results are often underreported in this region when we rely solely on mid-upper arm circumference, as we did here, instead of combining it with weight and height measurements.”
Back in March 2024, a mass screening showed an 8% severe acute malnutrition rate and a 29% global acute malnutrition rate—already twice the World Health Organization’s alert threshold of 15%.
The available food, sourced from pre-existing stocks, is sorely insufficient for the area’s population. Food prices in El Fasher have tripled compared to the rest of Darfur, and soaring fuel prices further complicate efforts to pump water and run generator-dependent clinics. Reports from our staff on the ground indicate that many residents expect to eat only once a day.
“Given this dire scenario, our response should be expanding,” Mayer asserts. “Instead, we’re on the brink, dangerously low on supplies and recently forced to narrow our focus to children in the most critical condition.”
“This predicament led to suspending treatments for less severe malnutrition cases, affecting an active group of 2,700 children. We also had to cease consultations for adults and children over five, resulting in thousands of missed consultations each month,” added Mayer.
Zamzam camp hosts an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people, many of whom are repeatedly displaced individuals fleeing Sudan’s ongoing conflict.
“These unconscionable supply blockades mean we’re forsaking a growing number of patients who already had scant options for life-saving care,” said Lacharité. “If roadways can’t facilitate the transport of massive urgent supplies, the United Nations must consider every possible alternative. Delaying means more deaths—potentially thousands.”
