Zamzam camp, Darfur, Sudan--Sudan's elections are of little concern to the latest arrivals at Darfur's Zamzam camp, forced to flee their homes by fighting this year between rebels and President Omar al-Bashir's forces.
Indicted by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes in the western region, Bashir is widely expected to extend his rule in polls starting on Monday.
But Zamzam's newest residents, overwhelmed by their tough living conditions, have paid little heed to campaigning.
"Someone who votes is someone who lives in stability," said Adam Idriss, as he waited at a well for water.
The white-bearded septuagenarian abandoned his home and livestock and fled to Zamzam in January when the government's latest offensive came to his village in North Darfur.
"In this state, how can we vote?" he asked.
Women in brightly coloured robes milled around behind him at the NGO-run well.
Nearby, in a small clinic, a health worker said they treat some 120 people daily for a variety of illnesses.
Most people there arrived after January, although Zamzam, 12 kilometres (seven miles) from North Darfur state capital El Fasher, was built for some of those first displaced in the conflict.
Its densely packed mud huts house some 165,000 people, and it has sprouted a new wing for those fleeing the government offensive dubbed "Decisive Summer 2".
Some new homes are fashioned from dried grass, but the only shelter many people have are the clothes they fled with, stretched over fallen branches.
"How do they want me to take part in these elections and I'm here under this burning sun?" Hamed Mohamed Ali asked.
Tens of thousands have fled the latest unrest, the United Nations said last month, and a humanitarian worker at Zamzam told AFP as many as 1,000 families may have arrived there.
AFP
