Spread of diseases in South Darfur’s Kalma camp

The population of Kalma camp for the displaced in Nyala locality, South Darfur, complain about an outbreak of diseases.

“Bronchitis, scabies, ring worm, and diarrhoea are spreading fast in the Kalma camp, especially among the newly displaced children and the infirm”, sheikh Juma Bakhit Hamid, the head of Kalma camp’s Block 8, reported to Radio Dabanga. “There is no health care anymore in the camp, and we are suffering from a huge shortage of medicines.”

“There is no shelter in the camp where there are no patients”, he added. “We fear that soon the health conditions will deteriorate more, as the rainy season is approaching.

The sheikh demanded from the South Darfur authorities to allow humanitarian organisations to access the camp, and provide health care and medicines “as soon as possible”.

The Kalma camp received thousands of newly displaced, after the RSF, under the command of the Sudanese security apparatus, attacked and destroyed dozens of villages in the areas southeast of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, at the end of February this year. Most of the newly displaced are housed in Kalma camp Block 8.

File photo: Newly displaced at Kalma camp, 9 March 2014 (Albert Gonzand#225;lez Farran/Unamid)