Three thousand new tents leave most displaced families in Sudan’s Tawila without adequate shelter

Shelter expansion falls far short

Relief teams have erected 3,000 tents at Daba Naira camp in Tawila, North Darfur, but the addition covers only a fraction of the needs of the area’s displaced population. Al Jazeera, citing the International Organization for Migration, reported on September 10 that about 665,000 displaced people were living around Tawila after repeated waves of flight from el-Fasher and surrounding districts.

The new shelters arrived as the rainy season exposed families living under worn tarpaulins or in the open. Low-lying ground can flood, while fires have also damaged displacement sites. Aid workers and residents described shortages extending beyond tents to clean water, sanitation, food and medical treatment, making shelter only one part of an interconnected emergency.

IOM estimates cited in the report indicate that more than 70 percent of households lack healthcare and that half of families have been unable to obtain treatment. Overcrowding and unsafe water have contributed to cholera, acute watery diarrhoea and skin infections. Children under five and pregnant women face elevated risks from malnutrition, exposure and interrupted care.

A crisis shaped by access

UN agencies have independently documented Tawila’s extraordinary growth. An August 14 UN briefing described more than 700,000 people sheltering across a vast desert settlement, with families still arriving daily. The briefing identified severe reproductive-health gaps, including long distances to emergency obstetric care and shortages of medicines used to control potentially fatal bleeding during childbirth.

Delivering supplies is dangerous as well as expensive. A UNHCR truck carrying shelter kits to Tawila was destroyed in an April drone attack, depriving 1,314 families of planned assistance. UNHCR said the locality was then hosting more than 700,000 displaced people and warned that attacks on humanitarian transport were delaying relief for communities already living in desperate conditions.

Population estimates vary between approximately 665,000 and more than 700,000 because they refer to different dates, geographic definitions and continuing movements. The variation does not alter the central finding: the shelter response is dramatically smaller than the population in need. The 3,000 installed tents should therefore be understood as an incremental delivery, not a resolution of the crisis.

Immediate priorities include completing promised tent deliveries, improving drainage and sanitation, replenishing health supplies and protecting aid corridors. The most important indicator to watch is whether agencies can reach families consistently through the rainy season. Without safer access and sustained funding, temporary shelter gains will be overtaken by new displacement, deteriorating tents and preventable disease.