Displaced and attacked: Artillery and food crises ravage Zamzam and Abushuk camps
NORTH DARFUR – Displacement camps in North Darfur, particularly in Abushuk and Zamzam and adjacent neighbourhoods around military headquarters and joint-forces positions, such as Abushuk Line, Al-Sahafa, Al-Nasr, Al-Qubba and Awlad Al-Reef, endure near-daily armed violence.
Abushuk camp lies about 7.4 kilometres north of El Fasher, while Zamzam sits roughly 18.5 kilometres to its south.
The roar of artillery is no longer surprising to civilians living in a daily suffocating humanitarian crisis. Markets are nearly bare of staples, drinking water is scarce, power outages are constant, and health services have collapsed. Calls for relief go unheeded.
On May 6, local sources told Atar, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shelled Abushuk camp, killing at least six displaced people and wounding some 20 others. On May 10, artillery strikes resumed, claiming 14 lives including the entire family of Abdullah Salim Bakhit and injuring additional residents. On May 12, RSF fire hit the Awlad Al-Reef neighbourhood, killing at least seven and wounding more. Then on May 14, another bombardment killed four and injured five, including women. A nearby Sufi congregation house in El Fasher also sustained strikes that injured committee members and destroyed property.
Imran Isa, a longtime resident of El Fasher now displaced to Tulta, North Darfur, says the situation worsens daily as communal kitchens in all areas shut down. Malnutrition and disease deaths are rising as cash and food vanish. Residents trek with livestock to town to sell or barter for meager supplies.
“People in El Fasher survive on lentils, sometimes with scraps of meat sold at rock-bottom prices,” Isa told Atar.
In the camps, some resort to animal feed, tree leaves, stale bread crumbs and even bakeries’ salt when table salt runs out.
Prices vary wildly: a pound of sugar costs 1,500 Sudanese pounds in Tulta but over 12,000 in El Fasher; a bar of soap is 1,000 pounds versus 5,000. Emergency kitchens struggle to secure supplies or payments as ethnic affiliation, political loyalty and social standing dictate who eats and who goes hungry.
Daily, more civilians flee El Fasher and the Zamzam and Abushuk camps for Tulta. Chad’s Tina emergency centre reports over 20,000 refugees have arrived, many walking on foot, including unaccompanied children whose families were killed or detained by RSF en route. Scores of mothers are still searching for missing children.
Back in Zamzam camp, under RSF control since April 14, thousands remain trapped amid rampant looting, the closure of the sole clinic and the main market, and a ban on Starlink devices. Many fear moving to other under-served areas.
An International Organization for Migration (IOM) displacement-tracking matrix notes some 180,000 people remain in Zamzam, while 303,000 have fled to Tulta, 83,000 to El Fasher and 9,000 to Kabkabiya, Kutum, Dar Salaam and Mellit since April 13.
UNICEF estimates about 450,000 people have escaped attacks on El Fasher, Zamzam and Abushuk, reaching Tulta, where it provides life-saving care at 14 health centres and safe water for up to 200,000 people but warns needs far exceed relief access.
In the crossfire: Civilians suffer as SAF and RSF fight out in Ad-Dibbibat
SOUTH KORDOFAN – Since April, Ad-Dibbibat in South Kordofan’s Al-Qoz district has been besieged by recurring violations by both warring parties and armed gangs known locally as “Shafshafa. Residents tell Atar that after the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) retook the Hammadi administrative unit, just kilometres from Ad-Dibbibat, Rapid Support Forces (RSF) withdrew toward Abu Zabad in West Kordofan.
Gangs then swept into the city, killing ten civilians and wounding more than 17, looting homes and shops, burning dwellings and terrorizing women and children with gunfire. Witnesses say gunmen roamed unchecked for over 24 hours.
In late April, RSF fighters ambushed the villages of Awlad Younis and Hilla Abdul Mahmud, four kilometres from Ad-Dibbibat, and stray SAF fire wounded villagers in Hammadi, whose residents had fled for fear of RSF reprisals after two years of its control.
Atar learned that ruthless gangs stripped shops and warehouses of already scarce food supplies and seized whatever grains and produce families had stashed at home. Video footage reviewed by Atar shows gunmen looting the main market and outskirts. Locals fear renewed retaliation should the RSF return or the SAF complete its consolidation.
Ad-Dibbibat’s strategic crossroads link Darfur’s key trade routes: west to Abu Zabad and Al-Fula; east to Abbasiyya Taqali; south to Souq Al-Na’am on the South Sudan border; and north to El-Obeid, whoever controls it dominates commerce between Darfur and Kordofan.
Last Wednesday saw another wave of displacement as residents fled to nearby villages that have already received hundreds of Ad-Dibbibat refugees. The city’s repeated looting, most recently by RSF before their May 14 withdrawal, has shattered any sense of security.
Darkness and thirst: Kamilin’s power and water scarcity as security stabilises
AL-JAZIRAH STATE – Kamilin, south of Khartoum in Al-Jazirah state, faces a severe water shortage, local sources told Atar, blaming erratic power across the state.
Water is trucked in from solar-powered pumps in Kalkul at 4,000 pounds per barrel or drawn untreated from the river without proper disinfection, posing health risks.
Nightfall brings total darkness as electricity flickers for only brief periods. Some areas go without power for weeks, others months. Many households have turned to solar panels.
“We must buy a quarter-block of ice each day, 3,000 to 4,000 pounds, since our refrigerator is unusable without reliable power,” said Safia, a local resident. Ice blocks themselves fetch between 12,000 and 16,000 pounds.
The Kamilin Teaching Hospital and health centres have reopened but remain understaffed and under-resourced. A nursing staffer told Atar that only the emergency ward operated previously; now dialysis, maternity and ophthalmology services are slowly resuming. Dengue fever and malaria are widespread in nearby villages.
Despite the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) forces reclaiming Al-Gezira, many of the displaced have not returned due to the dire conditions. Those who did mostly came from neighbouring states; those who fled farther afield remain away.
Despite restored communications, cash remains scarce statewide, with ATM withdrawals incurring between five and ten per cent fees via the Bankak app.
“Security is stable. People are returning home and reopening businesses. The market is active again, with goods arriving from Atbara, Shendi and East Sudan,” Radia, a Kamilin resident, told Atar.
International organizations continue to provide aid despite accusations of nepotism in its distribution.
Kamilin sits on the eastern bank of the Blue Nile, 84.1 kilometres south of Khartoum and 99.2 kilometres north of Wad Madani. Reclaimed by the Sudanese SAF in early February, its four administrative units, Kamilin, Massid, Mi’eelaq and Industrial Area, depend on orchards, trade and industry, all weakened by war.
| Item | Price (SDG) |
|---|---|
| Gasoline (gallon) | 15,000 |
| Diesel (gallon) | 14,000 |
| Seven loaves of bread | 1,000 |
| 50-kg flour sack | 35,000 |
| 10-kg sugar sack | 30,000 |
| 50-kg corn sack | 190,000 |
| 50-kg wheat sack | 240,000 |
| 50-kg charcoal sack | 75,000 |
| Cooking gas cylinder | 50,000 |
| Kilogram of onions | 1,500 |
| Pound of milk | 12,000 |
| 36-pound cooking-oil drum | 160,000 |
Selected Local Prices
Scars of war: Cost of living stays high as normalcy gradually returns in East Nile
KHARTOUM STATE – Mohamed returned from Cairo to Al-Qadisiyya neighbourhood in East Nile locality after a year in exile, following the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) retake of control in the area. He says water now flows from solar-powered pipelines three times weekly: Saturday, Monday and Thursday, after municipal lines ran dry.
Electricity remains the locality’s biggest casualty.
“They tell us it is under repair. No one knows when it will return,” Mohamed told Atar, noting power has been out for 18 months.
Since airstrikes hit East Nile Hospital in the war’s first month, residents have relied on the understaffed Al-Ban Jadeed Hospital, often lacking basic medicines like analgesics and injectables. Only two pharmacies operate reliably, making drug access difficult.
On security, Mohamed says the situation has improved as SAF checkpoints now guard the neighbourhood, although the war’s aftermath endures: civilians still discover bodies and skeletal remains on streets, and many homes lie abandoned “ghost houses,” he calls them.
Residents shop at Dar Salaam Al-Maghariba market after the closure of the large Hilla Kuku market. Al-Haj Youssef’s Souq Sitta shows signs of revival, with traders cleaning shops in preparation for reopening.
Inflation has soared, deepening hardship.
“Prices are extremely high; large families struggle to meet basic needs,” Mohamed said.
A simple salad costs 2,000 pounds; seven loaves of bread, 1,000; a 50-kg flour sack, 10,000; a kilogramme of beef, 20,000; lamb, 26,000; a kilo of onions, 3,000; and a liter of oil, 6,000.
Neither Qadisiyya nor Dar Salaam Al-Maghariba have active volunteer emergency rooms, unlike other neighbourhoods where initiatives are underway to clear debris and restore normalcy.
