Aid workers visit Sudan’s El-Fasher, see few signs of life
International humanitarian aid workers accessed the Sudanese city of El-Fasher for the first time since it was taken over by the rebel paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and reported that it has become mostly deserted, according to Reuters on December 29th.
A senior United Nations official spoke to the news agency and revealed that the workers, who visited the city on December 26th, discovered only a few residents sheltering in buildings or underneath plastic sheets.
The RSF imposed a brutal siege on El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, in May 2024 as part of a now successful campaign to dislodge the last remaining military presence in the western Darfur region.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has estimated that, since El-Fasher was captured by the paramilitary group on October 26th, roughly 107,294 people, comprised of 24,221 families, have been forced to flee due to a rapidly deteriorating security situation.
Survivors of the RSF takeover reported that combatants frequently carried out ethnically-motivated mass killings and widespread detentions, both during and after the capture. Many residents are still unaccounted for in El-Fasher and the surrounding villages.
Denise Brown, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, described El-Fasher as a “crime scene.” She said that “the town was not teeming with people. There were very few people that [humanitarian workers] were able to see” when they visited the city.
She said that the only signs of life visible were a few people living inside empty buildings or in makeshift camps made from basic plastic sheets. There was also a small market stocked with very few items, mainly locally grown produce.
Brown continued, stating that “we have photos of people, and you can see clearly on their faces the accumulation of fatigue, of stress, of anxiety, of loss.”
The residents of El-Fasher were subjected to mass atrocities following their fall to the hands of the RSF. On one occasion, fighters stormed the only functioning hospital in the city and massacred 460 patients and their relatives.
Brown said that the visit by humanitarian workers was conducted to assess whether El-Fasher could be safely accessed as the UN plans to start transporting basic aid supplies into the city.
She stated that later visits will focus on evaluating the city’s water and sanitation situation.
Reuters, Maghrebi.org
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