El Fasher: A City Groaning Under Fire, Hunger, and a Bleak Future
Sudan Events – Agencies
Caught between the hammer of death from bombardment, hunger, and disease, and the anvil of displacement into the unknown, hundreds of thousands of residents in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, and the surrounding camps are facing a dire humanitarian crisis. Immediate or “slow” death threatens them whether they remain in their city or flee elsewhere.
What is truly heartbreaking is that civilians are faced with two agonizing options. On one side, the joint forces fighting alongside the army refuse to allow residents to flee, calling on them instead to stay and fight in “defense of land and honor.” On the other side, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which urge civilians to evacuate to safe areas, continue to bombard the city and the camps with no regard for destruction, loss of life, or spilled blood.
Shelling and Siege
El Fasher has been under siege for more than a year and a half, witnessing ongoing military operations between the army and allied joint forces on one side, and the RSF on the other. The RSF has imposed a tight blockade on the city, which has an estimated population of one million, in addition to about half a million more who came from old displacement camps since the Darfur war in 2003 and now live around the city.
After withdrawing from central Sudan and the capital Khartoum, the RSF tightened its siege on El Fasher and its surroundings. The blockade led to severe shortages and soaring prices of food supplies, the collapse of basic services, scarcity of life-saving medicine, and the inability of humanitarian organizations to deliver aid to the besieged population.
Military confrontations have intensified, with expanded operations including artillery shelling, drone strikes, and aerial bombardments, resulting in hundreds of civilian casualties. The danger escalated dramatically with the outbreak of fighting in the Zamzam IDP camp, located about 12 kilometers from the city center.
Calls for Safe Corridors
There have been growing calls to open safe corridors for civilians to evacuate. Two armed movements allied with the RSF under the “Tassiss” coalition—namely the Sudan Liberation Forces Alliance, led by former Sovereign Council member El-Tahir Hajar, and the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by former Sovereign Council member Dr. El-Hadi Idris—have initiated civilian evacuation efforts. The RSF announced its readiness to “secure displacement operations.”
However, the evacuation initiative was met with strong opposition from the army and joint forces. According to Darfur 24 newspaper, the army and its allies, along with volunteer fighters under the name “Popular Resistance,” prevented groups of civilians from leaving. Meanwhile, army-aligned social media platforms actively encouraged people to remain in the city and IDP camps to defend what they described as “land and honor.”
Adam Ragal, spokesperson for the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees (a voluntary civil group), stated in a press release that the joint forces and army had arrested leaders and activists in Abu Shouk camp, accusing them of inciting people to leave and “collaborating” with the RSF.
Ragal accused the army and joint forces of turning civilians into “human shields” by imposing a military cordon around the camp to prevent residents from leaving, disregarding the harsh living conditions, including famine, scarcity of drinking water, inflated prices of essential goods, and ongoing aerial and drone attacks and gunfire.
Critical Conditions
In its latest report, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated that around 400,000 to 450,000 people in camps such as Zamzam and Abu Shouk had fled to areas like Tawila and other regions around Jebel Marra.
OCHA noted that the displacement movement has become “rapid and unpredictable” due to continued hostilities from both warring parties, fears of a large-scale RSF attack on El Fasher, and worsening levels of food insecurity.
