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.