UN humanitarian agencies have secured an agreement in principle with paramilitary forces to access El Fasher, where up to 100,000 people remain trapped after the city fell in October following a 500-day siege.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday it has reached terms with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for minimum conditions to enter the embattled North Darfur capital and conduct initial assessments.
“The little that’s known at the moment about the current conditions in El Fasher is indeed beyond horrific,” said Ross Smith, WFP Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response. Network blackouts have largely severed communication with those inside the city.
The RSF, which has fought Sudan’s army since April 2023, overran El Fasher in October. The siege reduced residents to eating peanut shells and animal feed, according to the UN human rights office. Satellite footage indicated bloodstains from mass killings and ethnicity-based executions.
Survivor testimonies “describe the city as a crime scene with mass killings, with burnt bodies, with abandoned markets,” Smith said.
Hundreds of thousands who fled El Fasher have sought refuge in Tawila, a small desert town now housing more than 650,000 displaced people. WFP convoys carrying supplies for 700,000 people for one month are currently en route to Tawila, Smith said.
Sudan faces the world’s largest displacement crisis, with more than 12 million people uprooted. The UN refugee agency reported Friday that fighting intensified in nearby Kordofan after Dec. 1, with the RSF seizing a Sudanese Armed Forces base in Babanusa, West Kordofan.
More than 40,000 people have been displaced from North Kordofan since Nov. 18, according to UNHCR.
