Food Crisis Deepens in Besieged El Fasher, Western Sudan

Sudan Events – Agencies

As the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intensify their assaults on the city of El Fasher in western Sudan — through artillery bombardments and drone attacks — the food crisis has worsened dramatically. Most of the “takayas” (charitable community kitchens) that once provided meager meals to the city’s besieged residents have now ceased operations after running out of food supplies in local markets.

Residents reported seeing people resorting to eating tree leaves and animal fodder in order to survive. Nearly two years into the RSF’s tightening siege of El Fasher — the largest city in the Darfur region — the entry of humanitarian and medical aid has been completely blocked, leaving food and medicine virtually nonexistent.

Although the Sudanese Armed Forces managed last week to airdrop supplies and military equipment to their base in the city (the Sixth Infantry Division), the shortage of food for civilians remains dire.

The El Fasher Resistance Committees Coordination, a local human rights group, said in a statement that the city witnessed intense artillery shelling on residential neighborhoods on Monday morning. In a post on Facebook, the group held the Sudanese government — particularly the leaders of the Darfur region — responsible for what it called “the total collapse and the ongoing silence in the face of the mounting civilian toll, including the lives of innocent children and women.”

The group added that what is happening in El Fasher is “the result of leadership failure and neglect of repeated distress calls warning of the city’s deteriorating humanitarian conditions.”

Local sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that civilians in El Fasher are suffering from severe hunger, including large numbers of children and women in displacement centers. Many rely entirely on daily meals provided by takayas in Zamzam Camp and other neighborhoods across the city.

They added that ongoing clashes and heavy shelling between the army and the RSF have made it impossible for many civilians to reach small neighborhood shops to purchase essential food items. According to the resistance committees, thousands of residents in El Fasher now face acute hunger and malnutrition as food stocks run out in Zamzam Camp and across the city.

The city’s largest charitable kitchen, Takiya El Fasher, was unable to distribute meals to displaced residents last Saturday, according to volunteer Mohyeddin Shougar, who wrote on Facebook:
“We issue this urgent appeal to shed light on the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the city and displacement centers.”

Shougar warned that the humanitarian situation in El Fasher has reached an “extremely critical stage” after food supplies in local markets were completely depleted, leading to the shutdown of essential facilities relied upon by thousands of families. He further cautioned that the “continuing severe shortage threatens the lives of many city residents with starvation.”

He urged the Sudanese government and humanitarian organizations to intervene immediately by airdropping food supplies to the besieged population.

Volunteers have also called for the establishment of safe humanitarian corridors to allow the entry of food and medical aid through land routes to avert famine.

According to the United Nations, Sudan is facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises since the war between the army and the RSF erupted in April 2023.

Source: Asharq Al-Awsat