In the heart of Darfur, a region in collapse

In Darfur, the fall of El-Fasher after more than 500 days of siege has plunged the entire region into an unprecedented spiral of displacement. Bombing, famine, the destruction of markets, and road closures have forced hundreds of thousands of families to flee to the last remaining accessible areas: Tawila, Golo, Nertiti, and other improvised makeshift settlements along the Jebel Marra foothills.

Tawila: the largest camp for displaced persons in the world

Tawila was once a commercial crossing point, a medium-sized town with a population of 35,000. Today, it is host to one of the world’s largest camps, surpassing even Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh: some 700,000 people have come to find refuge on a piece of land measuring eight kilometers long and one to two kilometers wide. An entire settlement made up of reed huts and canvas tents, which is growing as fighting destroys Darfur. In April 2025, people fleeing the sacking of the Zamzam camp arrived here. A few months later, at the end of October, the city of El-Fasher suffered a final assault that turned it into a ghost town. The survivors mostly fled to Tawila, a place of hope as this is where humanitarian aid is concentrated in Darfur.

Maakarim Mahmoud, 19 years old, lived under the siege of El-Fasher. “We spent more time in the bunker than in the house. There was nothing left in El-Fasher: no water, no food”. Seven months after giving birth, she set out on the road to Tawila in search of food. But on her way back, the road was blocked by fighters. Maakarim was never able to return home. Fortunately, she was able to take her mother and baby out of El-Fasher, where they had been stuck. However, the child arrived in Tawila in a critical condition. Maakarim took him to the nutrition center three times, “but when we leave, there is nothing to eat. He is losing weight again. I will do anything to feed him”.

Thousands of people in the region share Maakarim’s story: hunger drives them to flee, the journey tears families apart, and even reaching the camps does not guarantee survival.

Sudan

Context and action

55.6 million inhabitants
172nd out of 193 countries on the Human Development Index
499,406 people helped

SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL is very active in the Tawila camp. A well has been built at a depth of 140 meters, supplying water to five water points, including a health center. Other water sources have been rehabilitated and improved, and a two-kilometer network of underground pipelines has been installed. Mohammed Baba, program manager, explains: “We have progressed from a manual pump serving 1,000 people, which is a limited and challenging system, to a solar-powered system and a two-kilometer network. We now distribute around 7.5 liters per day to 80,000 people”. This is significant and effective. Every day, lives are saved thanks to this clean and safe water. However, it is still not enough. “All the NGOs combined only cover about 30% of water needs”, notes Renaud Douci, field coordinator. The scale of the need exceeds the available resources.

Golo, Nertiti, Zalingei: camps in need of assistance

While the Tawila camp is impressive in size, many other places have also become refuges for families fleeing from the city of El-Fasher. Their situation remains dire, as their relative small size makes them less likely to receive aid. Yet the emergency is everywhere.

At the base of Jebel Marra, 80,000 people currently live in the camp of the town of Golo, located along the main road to Tawila. But Golo is not a logistical priority: aid trucks often pass through this area without stopping on their way to Tawila.

In some camps in Darfur, displaced people manage to generate some income through food preparation, small-scale trading, wood gathering, and cart transportation. In Golo, this is impossible, explains Caroline Bouvard, country director for SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL in Sudan: “People have no resources to buy food. And they can’t farm either. I met people who didn’t even have a jerrycan to collect water “. During the rainy season, families live with their feet in water, as the camp is located in the bed of the wadi [river]. These conditions are very likely to cause epidemics, and cholera has already been reported. Our teams have installed water point, latrines, and showers, and are studying the feasibility of a more ambitious drilling project.

Golo, but also Nertiti, Zalingei… so many small towns that have become host to tens of thousands of people whose lives have been shattered by the immense violence that has ravaged Sudan. While Darfur is currently experiencing hell on earth, we now know that the conflict is moving towards Kordofan, a central region that opens the way for conflict to reach the capital.