(Blue Nile State, Sudan) – Families displaced by fighting are sheltering in forest areas without adequate medicines or shelter materials, according to new reporting by Radio Tamazuj on November 2.

These are residents’ reported accounts, not a clinically verified outbreak or comprehensive displacement count.

Fragile shelters and unavailable care

Resident Yagoub Abini described makeshift plastic-and-branch shelters. Inam Hussein said unavailable medicines had forced her family to use plant remedies for her daughter. That account is not evidence such remedies are safe.

Ayman Abdel-Karim, an activist with the Geissan Displaced People’s Gathering, said a communal kitchen at Al-Madina 10 had stopped operating because supplies had run out. He estimated that Shaira was sheltering about 1,700 families, or nearly 8,000 people. Those are his November 2 reported estimates, not a count independently verified by TNC.

Aid activity does not establish that every settlement is reached

In a separate November 1 Radio Tamazuj report, Blue Nile Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Gisma Abdel-Karim said authorities were coordinating assistance with humanitarian organizations. She described WFP food baskets, ADRA cash support and Islamic Relief hygiene supplies.

Displaced people interviewed for that report nevertheless described food and medicine shortages. A mother displaced from Kurmuk also called for children to be enrolled in school. The accounts underline needs extending beyond a one-off distribution to healthcare, education and livelihoods.

Separately, the Saudi Press Agency reported on November 1 that KSrelief had distributed 1,500 shelter kits the previous day, October 31, to displaced families in Blue Nile. It said the delivery benefited 7,320 people. These are the aid provider’s reported delivery figures; the announcement does not identify the forest settlements described in the November 2 report or establish that their needs were met.

What this reporting can establish

The regional reports and the primary aid announcement document both assistance activity and reported gaps. They do not measure overall coverage across Blue Nile. The different figures describe different groups and must not be added together.

This article draws on published reporting and an official aid announcement, not original TNC interviews or field reporting. It is distinct from TNC’s earlier Blue Nile strike report.

Sources: Radio Tamazuj, November 2 — forest displacement and residents’ accounts; Radio Tamazuj, November 1 — displaced families and commissioner’s response; Saudi Press Agency, November 1 — reported October 31 KSrelief shelter distribution.

Editorial illustration of makeshift shelter and medical needs in Blue Nile, Sudan; not a photograph or reconstruction of a particular settlement.