THE United Nations food agency said that it has paused aid distribution in Sudan’s famine-hit Zamzam displacement camp of a half-million people as fighting intensifies between the country’s warring sides, and it warns that thousands could now starve.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday that fighting in the past two weeks between the military and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group (RSF), has forced its partners to leave the camp in western Darfur for safety.

“Without immediate assistance, thousands of desperate families in Zamzam could starve in the coming weeks,” said the agency’s regional director, Laurent Bukera, who urged the warring sides to stop fighting and facilitate the delivery of aid.

WFP has been feeding about 300,000 camp residents, but it and partners reached only 60,000 people this month amid intensified shelling. 

One attack destroyed the camp’s central open market, pushing residents farther from essential food and supplies, the agency said.

Earlier this week, the Doctors Without Borders medical charity said that it had paused operations, including its field hospital, in the camp due to intensified attacks.

UN humanitarian operations director Edem Wosornu told the UN security council on Wednesday that satellite imagery showed heavy weapons were used in and around the camp in recent weeks.

“Terrified civilians, including humanitarian workers, were unable to leave the area when the fighting was most intense,” she said, saying that many people were killed including two aid workers.

Famine was announced in the Zamzam camp in August and spread to two other camps for displaced people in Darfur and the Western Nuba Mountains. 

WFP spokeswoman Leni Kinzli said that having to pause food distribution was “incredibly devastating.”

The RSF has been at war with the Sudanese military since April 2023. 

The conflict has been marked by atrocities, including ethnically motivated killing and rape, according to the UN and rights groups.

The International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.