{"id":54130,"date":"2025-09-11T02:31:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T23:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=54130"},"modified":"2025-09-11T02:31:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T23:31:20","slug":"sudanese-flee-besieged-el-fasher-after-facing-bombardment-starvation-and-humiliation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/11\/sudanese-flee-besieged-el-fasher-after-facing-bombardment-starvation-and-humiliation\/","title":{"rendered":"Sudanese Flee Besieged El Fasher After Facing Bombardment, Starvation, and Humiliation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Altayeb Siddig, Nafisa El-Tahir, and Khalid Abdelaziz<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dabba, Sudan (Reuters) \u2013 As the siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) tightened around the Sudanese city of El Fasher, a small group able to afford escape said they had endured relentless bombardment and were forced to negotiate their way past RSF checkpoints to leave a city where many had resorted to eating animal fodder.<\/p>\n

A United Nations fact-finding mission concluded last week that the RSF had committed crimes against humanity in El Fasher, the Sudanese army\u2019s last stronghold in the western Darfur region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who only hear about it can\u2019t imagine what we lived through,\u201d said Dar al-Salam Hamed, one of the escapees.<\/p>\n

When she and her family finally decided to leave, she said they were subjected to exhaustive searches by RSF fighters and robbed along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe truly suffered at the hands of these people,\u201d she told Reuters from a camp in Dabba, an area under army control. \u201cThey stole from us, they took my phone, and they searched us in a humiliating way\u2026 May God protect us from ever meeting them again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The RSF did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

The two-and-a-half-year war between the RSF and the Sudanese army has created what the United Nations calls the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crisis, with famine spreading across Sudan, including El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.<\/p>\n

The city has become a major battleground in the war, with the RSF seeking to consolidate control over Darfur as the base for a parallel government. That administration was sworn in last month and began appointing ministers on Monday.<\/p>\n

According to UN estimates, nearly half a million people have fled El Fasher since fighting erupted there in May 2024, leaving about 270,000 still trapped inside.<\/p>\n

Mass Deaths<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ahmed Hag Ali fled the city with his family last week, arriving in Dabba only a few days ago. He was among more than a dozen people who spoke to Reuters after escaping.<\/p>\n

\u201cI left on Friday because of the unbearable conditions\u2014the shelling, humiliation, and hunger,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no food, no medicine. People are dying in large numbers. The hospitals are overwhelmed, and there aren\u2019t even enough bandages to stop the bleeding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite RSF advances near the army\u2019s headquarters last week, Sudan\u2019s army and allied joint forces have maintained control of El Fasher. In recent days, army drone strikes forced RSF fighters to retreat.<\/p>\n

The joint forces are drawn largely from non-Arab tribes historically at odds with the Arab tribes that form the RSF\u2019s backbone, fueling ethnically driven attacks. Such violence occurred during the RSF\u2019s takeover of the vast Zamzam displacement camp in April.<\/p>\n

One resident, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the RSF recently expanded its trenches and barricades to encircle most of the city along a 31-kilometer line, making it nearly impossible for civilians to leave. Smugglers now must carry food supplies on foot.<\/p>\n

As a result, prices have soared: a small container of millet that feeds a family of three to five costs more than $35, while a pound of sugar sells for nearly $20. Animal fodder, which many people have been forced to eat, has become six times more expensive and scarce.<\/p>\n

A senior military source said the army launched a major air and ground offensive in neighboring North Kordofan state on Sunday in an effort to break the RSF\u2019s siege of El Fasher and the towns of Dilling and Kadugli further south.<\/p>\n

Starvation and Sexual Violence<\/strong><\/p>\n

The UN fact-finding mission determined that the RSF had committed the war crime of deliberately using starvation as a weapon in El Fasher. The report said depriving civilians of food, destroying hospitals, and obstructing humanitarian aid could also amount to crimes against humanity and genocide.<\/p>\n

In a statement last week, UN Women said rape and sexual assault were being used as weapons of war in North Darfur.<\/p>\n

\u201cPregnant women are giving birth with untrained midwives, without access to care for complicated deliveries,\u201d the agency warned.<\/p>\n

Ali, the escapee, said he and his brother were beaten at an RSF checkpoint when they fled at dawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeaving is no longer just dangerous\u2014it\u2019s also expensive,\u201d he explained, noting that passage costs as much as five million Sudanese pounds (about $1,600). Few can afford that sum, and RSF fighters have turned escape routes into a lucrative side business.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why so many remain trapped inside. We left loved ones behind who are still there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Altayeb Siddig, Nafisa El-Tahir, and Khalid Abdelaziz Dabba, Sudan (Reuters) \u2013 As the siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) tightened around the Sudanese city of El Fasher, a small group able to afford escape said they had endured relentless bombardment and were forced to negotiate their way past RSF checkpoints to leave a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54132,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54130\/revisions\/54132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}