El-Fasher under siege: Sudanese city faces deadly paramilitary assault amid rising famine

El-Fasher under siege: Sudanese city faces deadly paramilitary assault amid rising famine
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The Sudanese city of El-Fasher, North Darfur, is enduring its most intense paramilitary assault yet, leaving residents facing hunger, disease, and death, Arab News reported citing the United Nations and aid workers.

Since April 2023, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been at war with Sudan’s regular army. In recent weeks, the RSF launched relentless attacks on El-Fasher and nearby Abu Shouk displacement camp, including artillery bombardments, drone strikes, and ground incursions, targeting neighborhoods, the airport, and local police headquarters.

The UN has described El-Fasher, home to roughly 300,000 people, as an “epicenter of child suffering,” with nearly 40 percent of children under five acutely or severely malnourished.” Aid shortages are extreme: communal kitchens are running low on supplies, and some families are forced to eat ombaz, a peanut-shell feed unsafe for human consumption.

Local residents and aid workers report that escape routes are deadly, with roads westward lined with dozens of unburied bodies, leaving many with no safe way out. Humanitarian worker Mohamed Khamis Douda described rampant disease, a lack of clean water, and scarce medical care for the wounded.

Since the RSF captured Zamzam camp, mass displacement has increased, with thousands fleeing toward El-Fasher and other towns such as Tawila. Survivors report exhaustion, trauma, and injuries sustained while escaping the violence.

The UN warns that famine could spread further as fighting cuts off access to food and humanitarian aid. Community leaders report daily child deaths, while families remaining in the city describe staying behind as “a slow death,” yet fleeing remains equally perilous.

With El-Fasher effectively sealed off, the latest RSF offensive underscores the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Darfur, raising urgent calls for international intervention and aid access.