*Event date: 2025-02-26.*
The World Food Programme said on 2025-02-26 that it had been forced to stop distributing food in Zamzam camp in North Darfur, one of the clearest signs yet that fighting in Sudan is cutting off relief to people already living through famine. The decision came after intensified battles between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces made operations too dangerous.
Zamzam sits about 12 kilometres south of El Fasher and is home to roughly half a million people, making it the largest displacement camp in Darfur. The WFP has reached about 300,000 residents there before, but this month it managed to feed only 60,000. Officials warned that without immediate assistance, thousands of families could starve in the coming weeks.
The suspension follows a pattern that has become painfully familiar in Sudan’s war. Doctors Without Borders had already paused its work in the camp earlier in the week, and the WFP said only one convoy of humanitarian supplies had reached Zamzam since famine was declared there last August. The agency blamed a mix of road conditions, fighting and what it called purposeful obstruction by the RSF.
The humanitarian picture is worsening because the camp is not isolated from the wider war; it is inside a siege-like environment around El Fasher. Satellite imagery showed heavy weapons being used in and around the area, according to the UN humanitarian operations director Edem Wosornu, who told the Security Council that civilians and aid workers were trapped when the fighting was most intense. That makes the pause in distribution more than a logistics problem. It is a warning that the system meant to keep people alive is collapsing.
Sudan’s conflict has raged since April 2023 and has already turned parts of the country into what UN officials describe as a hellscape. Zamzam’s famine conditions have spread to other displacement camps, and the latest suspension suggests that one of the few remaining lifelines is being cut by the war itself. For families inside the camp, the question is no longer whether food arrives late, but whether it arrives at all.
The UN had already warned that famine had been declared in Zamzam last August and had spread to two other displacement camps. WFP officials said road conditions, fighting and what they called purposeful obstruction by the RSF meant only one convoy had reached the camp since then. Satellite imagery confirming heavy weapons in and around the area made the risk even starker. Edem Wosornu's warning to the Security Council was blunt: without immediate help, thousands of families could starve in the coming weeks.
The camp's famine status makes the pause especially dangerous. The WFP had previously reached roughly 300,000 residents there, but intensified fighting, poor roads and obstruction left it feeding only a fraction of that number this month. With satellite imagery showing heavy weapons around the camp and the Security Council warned that terrified civilians could not move safely, the decision to halt deliveries was not a bureaucratic pause. It was a sign that the war had begun to sever the last threads of survival for an entire community.
