\u2018We\u2019re suffering\u2019
\nA deadly cholera outbreak adds to the misery in a region that has witnessed fighting between the army and the rebels
\nTawila
\nPeople in Sudan\u2019s North Darfur region are forced to eat animal fodder to survive as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continues to lay siege to el-Fasher \u2013 the last urban centre in the region under army control.
\n\u201cWe are suffering, world. We need humanitarian aid \u2013 food and medicine \u2013 whether by airdrop or by opening ground routes. We cannot survive in this condition,\u201d Othman Angaro, from a displacement camp in el-Fasher, told Al Jazeera.
\nAngaro described how he and his family rely on livestock fodder known as ambaz, a type of animal feed made out of peanut shells.
\nAnother woman, veterinarian Zulfa Al-Nour, told Al Jazeera that her family relies daily on a charity kitchen called \u201cMatbakh Al-Khair\u201d for a single meal, amid a total lack of external aid.
\nShe called for urgent international intervention, including airdrops of humanitarian supplies, warning that even the ambaz fodder is nearly depleted.
\nThe Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) last week warned about starvation in the el-Fasher region. Starvation has reached the most severe level on the United Nations-backed food security scale \u2013 \u2018IPC Phase 5\u2019, indicating full-blown famine \u2013 it said on Friday.
\nThe two-month siege of el-Fasher has complicated aid efforts.
\nThe RSF has blocked food supplies, and aid convoys trying to reach the city have been attacked, locals said. Prices for the goods smuggled into the region cost more than five times the national average.
\nOutbreak of cholera
\nAn outbreak of cholera in the North Darfur state, of which el-Fasher is the capital, has further added to the misery.
\nDeaths due to the water-borne disease have risen to 191 in the region, which has witnessed months of fighting between Sudan\u2019s army and the RSF, according to a government official.
\nAt least 62 people have died from the disease in Tawila in the North Darfur state, the spokesman for the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees in Darfur, Adam Rijal, said in a statement on Monday.
\nNearly 100 people have also died in the Kalma and the Otash camps, Rijal added, both displacement camps located in the city of Nyala in South Darfur state.
\nSome 4,000 cases of cholera have been reported in the region, according to the statement.
\nIn recent months, more than half a million people have taken shelter in Tawila, some 60km (37 miles) west of el-Fasher, the state capital, which has been under two months of siege by the RSF rebels. Most of the Darfur region is under the rebel control except for el-Fasher.
\n\u2018Too weak to survive\u2019
\nMeanwhile, with Sudan in the throes of the rainy season, along with poor living conditions and inadequate sanitation, the outbreak of cholera is only worsening, warn aid groups.
\nCholera was first identified in early June in Tawila and has since spread to numerous refugee camps, according to NGO Avaaz.
\nNearly 40 people have died due to cholera in the Jebel Marra area, a district of West Darfur state.
\nDoctors Without Borders, or MSF, is operating two cholera treatment facilities in Tawila housing 146 beds \u2013 coordinating nearly the entire medical response to the outbreak.
\nLast month, it warned that \u201cmuch more\u201d needs to be done to improve \u201caccess to water, hygiene, and medical care to curb the spread of the outbreak in the midst of the rainy season\u201d.
\nSamir, a former teacher displaced to el-Fasher with his family, told Avaaz last week that the situation was \u201ccatastrophic\u201d and that the cholera outbreak was being exacerbated by widespread hunger.
\n\u201cPeople are dying because they are too weak to survive,\u201d he told the NGO.
\n\u201cTheir immune systems are compromised from severe malnutrition. People are starving in the displacement camps.\u201d
\nMeanwhile, fighting continues.
\n\u201cThe RSF\u2019s artillery and drones are shelling el-Fasher morning and night,\u201d one resident told the Reuters news agency.
\n\u201cThe number of people dying has increased every day, and the cemeteries are expanding,\u201d he said.
\nOn Monday, Emergency Lawyers, a human rights group, said at least 14 people fleeing el-Fasher were killed and dozens were injured when they were attacked in a village along the route.
\nThe UN called for a humanitarian pause to fighting in el-Fasher last month as the rainy season began, but the RSF rejected the call.
\nFighting between the two groups first erupted in the capital Khartoum in April 2023. It has since spread to several regions of the country as the army chief and de facto head of state, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, jostles for power with RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan \u201cHemedti\u201d Dagalo.
\nThe war has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 13 million people, according to UN estimates, resulting in one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2018We\u2019re suffering\u2019 A deadly cholera outbreak adds to the misery in a region that has witnessed fighting between the army and the rebels Tawila People in Sudan\u2019s North Darfur region are forced to eat animal fodder to survive as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continues to lay siege to el-Fasher \u2013 the last urban […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-495014","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n