US official reveals new aid delivery system for Sudan’s El-Fasher
A top US official revealed that an agreement with Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to implement a humanitarian aid delivery system for the city of El-Fasher is being finalised, according to The National on September 24th.
US President Donald Trump’s senior Africa advisor, Massad Boulos, stated that the deal would open up aid delivery corridors into the famine-stricken city which has been under siege since May 2024 as part of an RSF campaign to seize it from the Sudanese military.
El-Fasher is the last major city in the vast western Darfur region that is still under the control of the Sudanese military, making it the most violent front in the Sudanese civil war since it erupted in April 2023 between the RSF and the military.
Boulos said that the US has been working with the World Food Programme, the International Committee of the Red Cross and several NGOs in an effort to secure and implement the agreement.
He emphasised the importance of the deal by citing reports saying that roughly 260,000 people are trapped in El-Fasher, half of whom are children.
A UNICEF report released on August 26th exposed the brutality of the RSF’s siege, stating that over “1,100 grave violations have been verified” in El-Fasher, “including the killing and maiming of over 1,000 children.”
Boulos also revealed that direct discussions have been held with the RSF, as well as with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Despite being the RSF’s principal backer during the war, the UAE recently publicly condemned the paramilitary group’s attack on a mosque that killed 70 people.
However, The Guardian alleged on September 24th that the UAE has often “intervened to effectively derail lifesaving humanitarian aid entering El-Fasher”, a deprivation which has lasted for 18 months straight.
According to sources monitoring the situation in El-Fasher, one of the longest and most brutal sieges in modern warfare has only been possible due to Emirati support.
“The UAE is the lifeline to the siege. Without its support, the RSF would have called it off.”
The National, Maghrebi.org, The Guardian, UNICEF
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