Darfur Emergency Aid Update - July 2024
Program Background
Shortly after war began in Sudan in April 2023, Darfur became ground zero for some of the worst atrocities committed in modern history. The national army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) battle against each other for control of Sudan morphed into the largely Arab RSF launching a hate-driven assault on Darfur’s historic ethnic African groups, such as the Zaghawa, Fur, and Masalit.
Between April and June of 2023 alone, the RSF and their allied Arab militias committed a highly organized genocide of up to 15,000 Masalit people in El Geneina, West Darfur. The brutal paramilitary force followed up this extermination with a shock offensive across Darfur in October, seizing all but one state capital and driving most army forces out of the region.
One of our private Sudanese partners assisted persecuted ethnic groups fleeing RSF war crimes during this period. They helped nearly 2,000 refugees escape the Central, South, and East provinces and cross into South Sudan. This lifesaving work ended in November when the RSF completed its occupation of the area. We are proud of the brave team who worked around the clock at great personal risk to help some of the most vulnerable escape.
Operation Broken Silence has since shifted to emergency food and medical support for some of the most at-risk Darfur displaced and refugee communities. We are supporting key indigenous leaders in three areas:
Zamzam Displacement Camp near El Fasher, North Darfur
Adré Refugee Camps in eastern Chad
Gorom Refugee Camp near Juba, South Sudan
We have some important updates from these partners below, but first we need to provide you with the big picture of the emergency in Darfur and the camps. It is not possible to grasp the importance of the work being done by these leaders without knowing the grave conditions they are working in.
Map: Locations of Darfur heroes we are supporting. (Operation Broken Silence)
Security & Hunger Overview
Acute hunger in Darfur is now threatening more lives than direct violence by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Refugees coming into Chad —often with dangerously thin arms and thousand-yard stares— bring stories of witnessing extreme violence and feel the deep pangs of hunger.
It cannot be overstated that this unfolding famine is entirely manmade. Darfur under RSF occupation is a human rights and humanitarian nightmare. The ethnic cleansing of historic African tribes is ongoing. Rape and sexual violence are widespread. Unhinged RSF units are running out of markets, banks, farms, and storehouses to plunder.
The national army —Sudan’s defacto regime, also guilty of heinous crimes— continues denying large-scale aid access to Darfur. Army generals who are driven by hate and paranoia wrongly believe allowing aid in would legitimize the RSF; so, they’d rather participate in starving ordinary Sudanese to death.
Graphic: Mapping hunger in Sudan. Click or tap to expand. (IPC)
The few international aid convoys that manage to enter Darfur are at high risk of being attacked. To provide a recent example, three United Nations trucks were looted on July 1 while trying to deliver food to the rebel stronghold of Jebel Marra in Central Darfur, the last true safe haven in all of western Sudan neither under RSF nor army control.
Compounding this abysmal situation are two critical problems. First, the upcoming harvest in Sudan is expected to be severely depleted for a second year due to most farmers not being able to work. Second, a mere 16% of the funds needed to blunt famine in 2024 have been donated by the international system, and it is now over halfway through the year. This means that acute hunger is being felt in the refugee camps outside of Sudan too —where it is much easier to get aid in— simply because there is not enough funding.
This perfect storm has led the International Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) to issue 14 area famine warnings for Sudan, the majority of them in Darfur. 25.6 million Sudanese —half the country— are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity. 436,000 of the 755,000 people facing “catastrophic” levels of hunger (i.e. famine) live in Darfur.
The IPC is a global authority on food security and nutrition analysis; as such, these famine warnings are official data-driven determinations that speak to just how large and immediate the threat to human life now is. We encourage you to watch this short explainer video from the IPC.
This is the bleak environment our Sudanese partners are operating in. Every day they witness preventable death and suffering brought on by a senseless war and a criminal lack of global attention. They need ongoing support and all the help they can get.
Our Response
Operation Broken Silence is supporting key indigenous leaders who are bringing food and medical aid to their people. They are working in areas that host some of the most vulnerable survivors of the war:
Team Zamzam near El Fasher, North Darfur
El Fasher and nearby Zamzam camp in North Darfur are surrounded and under siege by the Rapid Support Forces. El Fasher is the only remaining army foothold in all of Darfur, and a sizable number of anti-RSF rebels and militias are holding out in the city as well. It’s estimated that around 2 million Sudanese —many belonging to ethnic groups such as the Zaghawa and Fur that the RSF are trying to exterminate— are trapped in the Greater El Fasher area.
Limited resources are still being smuggled into the area, but food prices alone have surged by more than 300%. Clean drinking water is scarce and most businesses and nearby farms are closed. Worsening this crisis is the RSF’s recent attack on Southern Hospital, which leaves no facility capable of providing care during this mass casualty event.
Team Zamzam consists of 20 female counselors who are distributing food, sanitizing soap, and medicine to the disabled and blind, the very elderly, unaccompanied children, widows who have taken in children, and those with severe acute malnutrition. They have also provided counseling to over 4,000 women who were sexually assaulted and arranged reparative surgeries for women suffering from traumatic fistulas. This is now likely the largest ongoing humanitarian assistance program in Darfur.
In May and June, Team Zamzam provided food assistance to 600 families (roughly 3,000 people), but only by cutting in half the amounts of food received by 300 families in the preceding month. They need at least $20,000 per month to continue saving lives, and even more would help them expand their efforts. These funds purchase and deliver food and medicine, pay a small salary to the counselors, and rehabilitate broken water wells. Fistula surgeries are no longer possible due to the local healthcare system being destroyed.
Refugee Leaders in Adré, eastern Chad
Over a dozen refugee camps around Adré are overwhelmed as survivors of the Darfur genocide continue arriving. All of the camps lack services to meet minimum clean drinking water, food, and medical needs. Rations provided by the international community have been cut before due to a lack of funding and interest.
25 volunteer health professionals and support staff —all refugees— are running a small medical clinic and feeding program to serve the most vulnerable, particularly orphaned children and the disabled. This is the only general medical clinic serving all ages in the camps. Every day they provide free care and medication to 150+ people and feed 600 children who would otherwise starve to death.
Over the past six months this team has treated several thousand patients for conditions that include malaria, typhus, diarrhea, malnutrition, heart disease, gynecological issues, diabetes as well as a full range of pediatric illnesses and conditions. Over 20 different types of medications have been distributed to those in need. Due to limited resources the clinic has a first come-first serve policy, with hundreds of patients lining up as early as 6AM. The feeding center serves millet porridge and beans and rice with milk for breakfast at 9AM daily. Similar to the clinic, children begin forming a line as early as 7AM in hopes of getting food.
The clinic and feeding program need at least $8,500 per month to continue operating at current levels. They are able to expand the services they provide to meet more needs, but currently lack the funding to do so.
Nuba Education Partner near Juba, South Sudan
Darfuri refugees who are unable to reach eastern Chad usually head for South Sudan, where refugee camps are overwhelmed and there are few to no services. One of these camps is Gorom just outside of Juba. The camp was originally planned for 2,000 refugees, but it has exploded in size over the past 9 months to include over 17,000 people, mostly from Darfur.
Our Nuba education partner has an office in Juba and recently provided food aid to 112 of the most needy families here. Food bags have included items such as sorghum, beans, oil, and salt. Similar to the situation in the Adré camps, a severe lack of international funding and attention means few food and aid services are available in Gorom, and none at the scale needed.
They need at least $4,500 per month to continue this lifesaving work. For now, they have completely run out of funding to feed the hungry in Gorom. They are able to expand to meet more needs, but will require additional funding to do so.
These heroes need your help.
Each of our Sudanese partners are a bulwark against spreading famine and food insecurity. They are uniquely positioned to do tremendous good. With the international community doing so little to fight this crisis, directly funding their efforts are all the more critical to fend off the most dire outcomes. Your generosity can save lives now and help them prepare for what lies ahead.
$4,000: fund the children’s feeding program in Adré for a month
$2,500: repair a broken well in Zamzam Camp
$1,000: provide most basic medicines needed at the Adré clinic for one week
$500: feed 10 families in Gorom Camp for a month
$250: help Team Zamzam expand their services
$100: support a Zamzam counselor for a month
$50: feed a family in Gorom Camp for a month
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It’s not in the news, but the world’s largest humanitarian emergency is unfolding in Sudan. Learn more and help: https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/darfur-emergency-relief-update-july-2024
Operation Broken Silence is helping provide emergency food and medical support to some of the most at-risk Darfur displaced and refugee communities. Learn more and get involved: https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/darfur-emergency-relief-update-july-2024
“It cannot be overstated that the unfolding famine in Sudan is entirely manmade. Darfur under RSF occupation is a human rights and humanitarian nightmare.” https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/darfur-emergency-relief-update-july-2024
These heroes are a small bulwark against spreading famine in Sudan. With the international community doing so little to fight this crisis, small efforts like these are all the more critical in fending off the most dire of outcomes. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/darfur-emergency-relief-update-july-2024
