RELENTLESS violence has devastated Sudan and large-scale fighting has escalated in and around the only capital in the western Darfur region not held by paramilitary forces, the United Nations top humanitarian official has warned.

Acting humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya told the UN security council on Wednesday that famine has already struck Zamzam camp, about 10 miles from North Darfur’s embattled capital of El Fasher.

She said a large-scale humanitarian operation is “a matter of life and death.”