Tawila (Sudan) (AFP) – A huge fire in a camp for displaced people in western Sudan has left one dead, a child and others injured, leaving hundreds of people already displaced by the war homeless, according to a local official.
Published on: 02/11/2026 - 10:45 p.m.
Since April 2023, a devastating conflict has opposed the regular Sudanese army and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR).
The "catastrophic" fire broke out on Monday at al-Omda camp, near the town of Tawila, in North Darfur state, according to Abu Bakr Haroun, vice-president of the committee that manages the camp.
He said a three-year-old child had died in the fire which also injured 13 people, destroyed some 500 makeshift homes and killed numerous animals.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Tuesday that the fire had displaced 514 families to Tawila, where hundreds of thousands are already displaced.
Omar Abdallah Ahmed, a resident of the camp, told AFP of an "urgent need for shoes and blankets". "I lost all my money in the fire. We lost everything. We couldn't take anything from our shelters. They were completely destroyed by the fire," he said.
Photos taken by AFP show piles of ashes where the displaced people's tents once stood.
The few shelters that were not destroyed by the fire are covered in a layer of soot.
Aid organizations provided clean water and food, but Haroun said this covered only a small part of the needs, adding that only two of the camp's collective kitchens were functioning.
“We need tents (...) There are no blankets and it is very cold at night,” he added.
Tawila is currently hosting hundreds of thousands of displaced people coming from El-Facher, the capital of North Darfur, which the paramilitaries seized in October after a long siege.
© 2026 AFP
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