North Darfur: Child dies, entire neighbourhoods destroyed in Tawila El Omda camp inferno

A toddler has died in a massive fire that broke out in Tawila El Omda camp for internally displaced people in the Tawila district of North Darfur on Monday. The fire destroyed hundreds of shelters housing newly displaced families, most of whom fled the hostilities between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) around the North Darfur capital of El Fasher. Monday’s fire caused significant property damage. Women, children, and seniors have been left without shelter, food, or protection. Local authorities cite ‘an accident’, while Darfur governor Minni Minawi accuses unnamed parties of intentional arson.

Displaced people told Radio Dabanga that the fire destroyed three neighbourhoods and spread for a distance of one kilometre. The General Coordinator of IDP and Refugee Camps in Sudan issued an urgent humanitarian appeal, seen by Radio Dabanga, to the international community and humanitarian organisations, calling for immediate intervention to provide alternative shelter that protects the affected families, provide food, water, and urgent health care, in addition to supporting the reconstruction of the camp and strengthening its capacity to face disasters.

The Tawila Civil Authority, affiliated to the Sudan Liberation Movement Abdelwahid faction (SLM-AW), which has been in control of Tawila for nearly three years since the war broke out, said in a statement on Tuesday that the inferno was caused by accident. They conform that two-and-a-half-year-old Mohsen Babiker Mohamed Shamin died, 13 others were injured, and more than 550 families left destitute.

The coordinator stressed that for Tawila El Omda camp residents, “every urgent response means saving the lives of the afflicted, and every hand that extends with help instils new hope in them, and represents a human dignity that deserves protection”.

The Civil Authority explained after its visit to the area that preliminary information indicates that the causes of the fire are due to an accident. They say that a young woman made a fire to heat water to bathe, but left the fire burning, and it spread spreading rapidly inside the camp. He pointed out that part of the camp that was destroyed by the fire was not planned within the housing plan conducted by the civil authority.

The Authority called for the need to enhance awareness of safety and fire prevention means within the camps, especially in light of the difficult humanitarian conditions and high population density.

‘Arson’

Darfur regional governor Minni Arko Minawi, described the Tawila fire as “not just a passing incident, but a new tragedy”. He accused parties he didn’t name of intentionally burning the displacement camps, calling it “criminal behaviour condemned by all standards that reveals a cruel plan aimed at forcing the displaced to forcibly return to El Fasher” whence most of them have fled.

He called on the international community “to condemn these flagrant violations and stand seriously to protect civilians,” and appealed to humanitarian organisations and all concerned parties to take immediate and urgent action to save these vulnerable people and provide shelter, food, and medicine “before the disaster worsens and further lives are lost”.