Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said it is suspending its work in Zamzam camp for displaced people near El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan due to escalating violence in a statement released on Monday.
In the statement, MSF said that fighting in and around Zamzam camp “is making it impossible for MSF to continue providing medical assistance".
“Despite widespread starvation and immense humanitarian needs, we have no choice but to take the decision to suspend all our activities in the camp, including the MSF field hospital”, the statement continued.
The Zamzam camp houses approximately 500,000 people displaced by the 22-month-long civil war in Sudan.
MSF’s head of mission in Sudan, Yahya Kalilah said,
“In January and December, two of our ambulances carrying patients from the camp to El Fasher were shot at. Now it’s even more dangerous and as a result, many people, including patients requiring trauma surgery or emergency caesarean sections are trapped in Zamzam.”
The region has seen heavy fighting between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Joint Force, a coalition of armed groups allied with the Sudanese Armed Forces.
The medical charity emphasizes that the fighting has resulted in dreadful consequences for civilians. RSF has been accused of carrying out ethnic cleansing and genocide by international human rights organizations.
MSF has urged the RSF, the Joint Forces and all armed actors in the area to "protect civilians and ensure that those willing to flee are able to do so unharmed".
Read full statement here