A massive fire at a Sudanese displacement camp killed a child and left hundreds homeless, compounding misery for those already fleeing the country’s brutal war

TAWILA: A massive fire at a displacement camp in Sudan has killed a child and left hundreds of people homeless. The victims had already been forced to flee the brutal conflict ravaging the country.

The “catastrophic” fire broke out on Monday at Al-Omda camp near the city of Tawila in North Darfur. Abu Bakr Haroun, deputy head of the camp’s management committee, confirmed the details.

He said the fire killed a three-year-old child and injured 13 other people. It also destroyed 548 homes and killed many animals.

The UN’s International Organization for Migration said the fire displaced 514 families to open areas in Tawila. Haroun told AFP it was “perhaps the worst we have seen in all our years in North Darfur”.

Camp resident Omar Abdullah Ahmed spoke of an “urgent need for shoes and blankets”. “I lost all my money in the fire. We lost everything,” he told AFP.

AFP photos from inside the camp show piles of ashes where tents once stood. The few homes not consumed by the fire were covered in a layer of black soot.

Humanitarian organisations have provided clean water and food. Haroun said this was “not enough to meet 10% of the needs”.

He added that only two of the camp’s public kitchens were functioning. “We need tents for people to take refuge in. There are no blankets, and the cold temperature at night is very harsh,” he said.

Tawila is currently hosting hundreds of thousands of displaced people from El-Fasher and other towns. Resources are limited and infrastructure is depleted.

Since April 2023, the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in conflict. The war has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million people.

The conflict has effectively split the country in two. The army holds the north, centre and east, while the RSF and its allies control the west and parts of the south.

 The Sun Malaysia