By: Staff Reporter | editor@thepointafricanews.com | FEATURED

KHARTOUM, Sudan – The dust-choked landscape of Sudan tells a grim tale of a nation ravaged by conflict. Here, amidst a brutal stalemate with no credible peace process visible on the horizon, the war has become a slow, agonizing siege on its own people. For months, relentless bombardments, ground attacks, and chokehold blockades have methodically carved a path to famine, turning once-vibrant communities into ghost towns and overflowing displacement camps into epicenters of despair.

Nowhere is this tragedy more acutely felt than in Zamzam camp in North Darfur. Once a sanctuary for those fleeing earlier conflicts, it has become a desperate symbol of the war’s ultimate cruelty. Here, among the makeshift shelters under the relentless sun, famine has taken root. It was officially confirmed in August 2024, a chilling declaration that marked the beginning of a relentless descent. Stories from aid workers, who struggle to penetrate the blockades, speak of skeletal children and mothers too weak to weep, their resilience eroded by a constant, gnawing hunger. Recent assaults on the camp by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have not only driven further displacement but have also severed critical lifelines, making the delivery of food and medicine an almost impossible feat. Every passing day deepens the abyss for Zamzam’s trapped residents.

The scale of human upheaval is staggering. Since the conflict erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF, over 11 million people have been internally displaced, making this the world’s largest and fastest-growing displacement crisis. Imagine entire families, often with nothing more than the clothes on their backs, forced to abandon their homes, their fields, their memories, embarking on perilous journeys through hostile territories. They join the additional 4 million who have already sought refuge in neighboring countries, straining already fragile resources. Each month, the conflict churns out more refugees, more internally displaced, more citizens grappling with an unbearable sense of loss.

For those who remain, or those who find a temporary haven in overcrowded camps, daily life is a battle against the odds. Critical infrastructure lies in ruins, bombed-out buildings and shattered roads bearing witness to the relentless fighting. Healthcare services have collapsed in many areas, leaving millions without access to basic medical care. Treatable diseases become death sentences, and injuries go unattended. With an estimated 25 million people – roughly half of Sudan’s population – now facing acute hunger, and over 637,000 enduring catastrophic famine conditions, the very fabric of society is unraveling.

Despite multiple attempts at mediation by regional and international actors, the peace process remains stalled, a bitter irony for a population that yearns only for an end to the violence. The warring factions continue their deadly struggle, seemingly impervious to the escalating human cost. It is a conflict that has transformed the Sudanese people from observers to victims, the silent losers in a brutal power struggle that has consumed their lives, their livelihoods, and their hope for a peaceful future. The world watches, but for the millions trapped in this deepening humanitarian catastrophe, urgent action remains an elusive dream.