A large fire that engulfed a camp for displaced persons near the town of Tawila in western Sudan’s North Darfur state on Monday claimed the life of a child. Hundreds of people found themselves without a roof over their heads, AFP reported on Wednesday.
- A massive fire has hit a camp for displaced people in North Darfur.
- The fire claimed the life of one child and injured 13 other people.
- The fire destroyed 548 tents and deprived hundreds of people of shelter.
- Humanitarian aid covers only part of the needs of displaced families.
- Sudan has been plagued by an ongoing conflict between the military and the SRS since April 2023.
The deputy head of the camp’s management committee, Abu Bakr Harun, specified that the fire killed a three-year-old child, injured 13 other people, destroyed 548 tents and shelters. Many animals also perished. Harún told AFP that this one there was a fire “perhaps the worst we’ve seen in all the years we’ve seen in North Darfur”.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration said on Tuesday that 514 families found themselves without shelter due to the fire, which are currently living in the open in the town of Tawila. Humanitarian organizations provided clean water and food to the displaced. However, according to Harún, this aid “was enough to satisfy 10 percent of the needs.” “We need tents for people to shelter in. There are no blankets and the temperature is very low at night,” he specified.
The city of Tawila is currently home to hundreds of thousands of people displaced from the city of Fashir and other cities in North Darfur. The city has limited resources and an exhausted infrastructure.
The conflict in Sudan essentially divided the country into two parts:
the army controls the north, center and east of the country, while the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) and its allies control the west and parts of the south. The Sudanese government, the army and the RSF have been waging a war against each other since April 2023, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced nearly 12 million.
