No food, no medicine, no escape: Sudan's El Fasher is desperately fighting for survival

In what was once the first-class neighbourhood of El Fasher in Sudan, Safa Abkar tries to light a fire after a rainy day to cook a meal of "ambaz", peanut pressing residue mixed with salt, for her two surviving children. The 38-year-old widow lost her youngest son, two-year-old Omar Abdel Rahman, who died of starvation after a health crisis caused by lack of milk.

"Since my husband was killed in a marketplace bombing last December, animal feed has become our daily meal. What we once fed the sheep she slaughtered and sold to buy flour or sugar is now sustenance for my children," Safa told The New Arab explaining that she cannot afford the 500,000 Sudanese pounds (around $830) per person required to leave the city, and the escape routes are fraught with death.

"Everyone in El Fasher is facing a daily struggle to survive," said Eric Perdison, World Food Program's Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa. "Without immediate and sustained access," for humanitarians, Perdison added, "lives will be lost."

Sudan has been ravaged by civil war since April 2023, when fighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The conflict has displaced over 10 million people and created one of the world's largest humanitarian crises.

A strategic battleground

Since 15 May 2024, the RSF have imposed a suffocating blockade on El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state and one of Sudan's largest cities. El Fasher is strategically important as the last major stronghold in Darfur not under RSF control, making it a key battleground in Sudan's civil war.

Brutal attacks by the Rapid Support Forces on the besieged city and the adjoining Abu Shouk camp for displaced persons have intensified. According to Jeremy Laurence, Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 89 civilians were killed over a 10-day period ending 20 August.

"We fear the actual number of civilians killed is likely higher," Laurence stated. "In the latest attacks documented by our Office, between 16 and 20 August, at least 32 civilians were killed. At least 57 civilians were killed in previous attacks on 11 August. Such attacks are unacceptable and must cease immediately."

Safa's story reflects a tragedy engulfing the entire city.

She and her children fled from the Al Masaneh neighbourhood east of the city in June 2024 following RSF control of the area where she grew up. The house where she now lives was given to her by its owner who abandoned the city, asking her to occupy it for free. Built with cement and less affected by shelling than other structures, she has taken in neighbours seeking shelter. Yet traces of stray ammunition provide stark evidence of the random targeting of civilian areas.

Initially, Safa survived on money sent by her husband's brothers and her own family. But she lost this lifeline after abandoning the annual farming she once did every autumn, forced to stop by deteriorating security conditions. Now, she has planted the house courtyard with okra and corn, desperately hoping to harvest something before hunger claims her remaining children.

The humanitarian situation has reached a critical point after more than a year of siege. Airdrops of humanitarian aid ceased after three aircraft were shot down, leaving no effective alternatives from the Darfur regional government or humanitarian commission. The UN and World Food Program (WFP) estimates that approximately 300,000 people are living in horrific humanitarian conditions, with severe hunger becoming a daily reality.

Deaths are recorded at around 63 people per week, mostly women and children. The Sudan Doctors Network documented 239 children dying of starvation in the first half of the year alone, with expectations of higher numbers outside hospitals.

In Abu Shouk camp within El Fasher, Nafisa Abdullah sits beside her son's bed. The 42-year-old mother watches helplessly as nine-year-old Ibrahim suffers from malaria for three days, unable to find medicine or IV solution to save him. She can only gather herbs from autumn weeds scattered on the streets after rainfall.

"Ibrahim's illness started mild, but now it's getting worse," Nafisa says. "Medicines have disappeared from pharmacies, and even if found, their prices are astronomical."

Abu Shouk camp, established in 2004, originally housed people displaced by the Darfur genocide. It has now become a refuge for those fleeing the current conflict, swelling its population beyond capacity. Families now depend on what community kitchens provide, if available, after food ran out from homes due to halted commercial activity and closed roads.

No way out

Journalist Mohammed Ahmed Nizar was injured in shelling that targeted El Fasher's Grand Market while buying necessities for his family, before the market went out of service last November. The bombing killed several citizens, while four shell fragments lodged in his left leg. Due to the deteriorating health situation in the city, Nizar couldn't undergo surgery to remove them.

"We encountered the shelling in the market," Nizar recalls. "When the shelling intensity calmed down, I decided to return home, but suddenly a shell targeted us, hitting my left leg."

The journalist explains the dire economic reality: "People can't manage more than one meal daily. Food is nonexistent due to the siege. Two kilograms of bread cost 350,000 pounds ($583), a kilogram of sugar costs 120,000 pounds ($200), and a kilogram of flour costs 160,000 pounds ($266). Anyone who manages to eat a meal of animal feed considers their day accomplished."

Food prices in El Fasher are four times higher than in other parts of the country, making basic sustenance impossible for most families, according to WFP reports.

Alongside famine, the city faces widespread cholera and epidemic diseases.

North Darfur's Ministry of Health announced 826 new cholera cases in one week ending August 18, 2025, including four deaths, bringing total infections since the outbreak began to 4,238 cases with 75 deaths. Additionally, 19 new measles cases and 2,099 malaria cases were registered during the same week.

The humanitarian coordinator for Darfur region, Abdel Baqi Mohammed Hamed, acknowledges the UN's failure to deliver aid whether by land or air, noting that many shipments were diverted or detained by conflict parties.

Rashid al-Taher, a young volunteer at food kitchens in El Fasher who left the city last week after food ran out, describes the situation as catastrophic. "I had to leave because I'm directly responsible for a family. The situation in El Fasher is catastrophic: a crisis of food, water, health, and treatment. The city needs a divine miracle and intervention from the state and society to save El Fasher's people."

For families like Safa's, the choice is between two bitter options: staying in a city dying of hunger or leaving for an unknown fate. The cost of evacuation, 500,000 pounds per person, remains prohibitive for most residents, while reports of families disappearing during escape attempts to create additional fear.

International observers warn these attacks may constitute war crimes, as they reportedly target civilians based on ethnic identity, echoing patterns from the Darfur genocide two decades ago. Exit routes from the city have been blocked, and civilians are trapped under siege, cut off from safety and aid.

As artillery shelling intensifies and epidemics spread, civilians remain trapped between impossible choices. El Fasher today appears not just as a besieged city, but as an open wound bleeding humanity before the eyes of the world.

The siege represents a microcosm of Sudan's broader humanitarian crisis, where 25 million people, more than half the population, need humanitarian assistance, making it one of the world's largest humanitarian emergencies.

This story was published in collaboration with Egab.