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Recently captured satellite images show the emergence and rapid expansion of two displacement camps in Sudan’s North Darfur and Northern states, according to analysis by Al Jazeera’s investigations unit.
Al Jazeera’s “Sanad” digital investigations unit analyzed how large areas have been transformed into overcrowded shelters for displaced people, with satellite imagery analysis showing the establishment of a new displacement camp in the town of Qarni, northwest of El Fasher, after the city fell to the Rapid Support Forces on Oct. 26.
The images captured between Oct. 25 and Dec. 29 showed a camp that has continued to grow steadily in size. High-quality images taken on Dec. 14 showed the camp covered 186,000 square meters, but it expanded by 13,000 square meters in just two weeks, reaching 199,000 square meters.
About 700 kilometers north of El Fasher, other satellite images showed a major expansion of the Al Affad camp, east of the city of Al Debba in Sudan’s Northern State.
The images indicated a clear increase in the number of tents and the area occupied, as displaced people began arriving at the camp in early November.
The images showed that the camp, which was estimated to cover about 130,000 square meters on Nov. 19, surged to more than 500,000 square meters by Dec. 29.
U.N. estimates indicated that about 100,000 people have fled El Fasher since late October, after the Rapid Support Forces took control of the city.
Of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF controls all five states of the Darfur region in the west, except for some northern parts of North Darfur that remain under army control. The army, in turn, holds most areas of the remaining 13 states in the south, north, east, and center, including the capital, Khartoum.
The conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has since killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others.
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