El‑Fasher on the Brink: A Famine Unfolding Amid Siege and War Trapped by conflict and starvation, the people of El‑Fasher face catastrophic hunger, disease, and displacement. This in-depth report explores the siege, the collapse of aid, and the urgent need for global intervention.
Introduction
The city of El‑Fasher, capital of North Darfur in western Sudan, now stands as a stark symbol of human suffering. Under siege for over a year, the city is wholly cut off from food supplies and humanitarian relief. Everyone in El‑Fasher is facing a daily struggle to survive. With food prices up to 460% higher than elsewhere in Sudan, and markets, clinics, and communal kitchens shut down or destroyed, the signs of famine are unmistakable.
This article examines how the siege began, who is trapped inside, the causes of the impending famine, the ways people are surviving, and what the international response has been concluding with an urgent call for action.
1. How the Siege Took Hold
From Civil War to Total Encirclement
The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces erupted in April 2023. By May 2024, RSF fighters had surrounded El‑Fasher and sealed off all major roads into the city, initiating a siege designed to exert military and political control over Darfur.
Destruction of Infrastructure
RSF forces captured and shut off the Golo reservoir and pumping station, cutting water supplies. Shelling and airstrikes damaged hospitals, clinics, bakeries, and markets. By early 2025, electricity was gone and bakeries closed, leaving health and food systems crippled.
2. Who Remains and Who Fled
A City Under Siege
Approximately 300,000 people remain in El‑Fasher including original residents and refugees who fled earlier phases of the Darfur crisis. Over half a million internally displaced people had already moved into the city due to earlier violence, many from camps like Zamzam.
Displacement to Tawila
An assault on the Zamzam IDP camp in April 2025 forced further waves of displacement. Thousands fled toward Tawila, about 40–60 km away, where conditions are precarious: overcrowding, minimal aid, cholera outbreaks, and limited water and sanitation access.
3. Why Famine Is Unfolding
Blocked Aid and Soaring Prices
With roads blocked for over a year, the World Food Programme has been unable to deliver aid by road. Staples like sorghum and wheat now fetch prices up to 460% higher than in other regions.
Community Kitchens Shuttered
Local community kitchens that once provided hot meals have largely shut down due to lack of supplies. As a result, families have no dependable source of food outside extortionate markets.
Malnutrition Explodes Among Children
Reports show that nearly 40% of children under five in El‑Fasher are acutely malnourished, with 11% in severe acute malnutrition. In the first six months of 2025, 239 children died of hunger in the city alone.
4. Survival Strategies: From Animal Feed to Foraging
Desperate Diets
Residents have turned to consuming animal fodder a by‑product of oil‑seed pressing, ground into slurry and barely calorific enough to stave off death. Some are forced to scavenge wild plants or weeds, including in neighboring regions like Kordofan and the Nuba Mountains.
Collapse of Health and Hygiene
Cholera is spreading rapidly, especially in Tawila, with over 2,500 cases and dozens of deaths. Water access remains limited for only 10% of displaced families; sanitation and shelter are virtually nonexistent.
5. Humanitarian Response: Failing at the Gates
Aid Blocked and Funding Cut
Despite the World Food Programme’s readiness to dispatch convoys, access routes remain under RSF control. A joint aid convoy in June was attacked; five people were killed, and supplies destroyed.
Only 23% of the global humanitarian appeal has been funded, severely constraining vital programs.
Calls for Protection of Aid Workers
Human rights experts have urged international bodies to deploy armed peacekeepers to protect aid missions, warning of escalating violence and impunity in attacks on humanitarian convoys.
Health Threats Multiply
With famine and malnutrition widespread, public health is in collapse. Cholera, measles, malaria, and dengue are spreading in camps and cities as medical supplies dwindle and clinics fail.
Conclusion: A City Left to Starve
El‑Fasher is more than a city under siege. It is a warning. Without immediate humanitarian corridors and international pressure to allow aid, hundreds of thousands could face death by starvation or disease. The time to act is now. The world must recognize that famine is not looming it is already here.
Learn more about the broader implications of the crisis in this external report.
