DUBLIN,Ireland Aug 5 – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has issued a dire warning that residents trapped in the besieged Sudanese city of el-Fasher are now on the brink of famine, with reports of starvation-related deaths already emerging.
The city, located in the western region of Darfur, has been encircled for nearly 16 months by fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who are battling Sudan’s military to seize control of what remains the army’s last stronghold in the region.
According to the WFP, no humanitarian food deliveries have reached el-Fasher by road for over a year, despite the agency having trucks loaded with emergency supplies ready for dispatch. While the Sudanese government has approved the WFP’s planned deliveries, the RSF has yet to respond to requests for a temporary ceasefire to allow access.
“Everyone in el-Fasher is facing a daily struggle to survive,” said Eric Perdison, WFP’s regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa. “People’s coping mechanisms have been completely exhausted by over two years of war. Without immediate and sustained access, lives will be lost.”
The humanitarian situation inside el-Fasher—home to an estimated 300,000 residents—has grown increasingly desperate. Food prices have skyrocketed amid severe shortages, and some families are now reportedly eating animal feed and food waste in a bid to stay alive.
“Only Hunger and Bombs”
The WFP highlighted the case of Sondos, an eight-year-old girl who fled el-Fasher with her family. “In el-Fasher there was a lot of shelling and hunger,” she told aid workers. “Only hunger and bombs.”
The situation has drawn urgent appeals from both international agencies and local officials. North Darfur Governor Al-Hafiz Bakhit, aligned with the military-led government, described the conditions in the city as “unbearable.”
UNICEF also raised alarm this week, saying malnutrition is widespread across Sudan, with many children “reduced to skin and bones.” The agency cited data from July indicating that 38% of children under five in displaced camps in and around el-Fasher are suffering from acute malnutrition.
Fighting Escalates as Ceasefire Talks Stall
Sudan has been gripped by civil war since April 2023, when a power struggle erupted between the military and its former ally, the RSF. The conflict has since spiraled into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Recent efforts to secure a week-long truce to allow humanitarian access to el-Fasher have stalled. Sudanese state media reported that General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the armed forces and de facto national leader, agreed to the ceasefire. However, the RSF has not confirmed its participation and appears to have rejected the proposal, claiming the pause would allow for the resupply of military forces inside the city.
Instead, RSF-aligned sources claimed that their forces are establishing “safe routes” to allow civilians to flee—though reports from the ground suggest otherwise. Survivors have described harrowing escapes from the city, often under heavy bombardment and attacks by RSF-linked gangs.
Over One Million Flee El-Fasher
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than one million people have fled el-Fasher since the fighting began, including residents of the nearby Zamzam camp, which the RSF seized in April.
While modest humanitarian access has been restored to parts of central Sudan, where army forces have regained territory, aid agencies say recent funding cuts have left them overstretched.
“It is a looming catastrophe,” said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF’s representative in Sudan. “We are on the verge of irreversible damage to an entire generation of children, not because we lack the knowledge or the tools to save them, but because we are collectively failing to act with urgency and scale.”
With the rainy season now underway, the WFP fears its already fragile progress in reaching some areas of Darfur could be undone, further deepening a crisis that has left millions at risk of starvation.
