Months after famine was declared in nearby displacement camps, the besieged Sudanese city of El-Fasher is now seeing starvation deaths of its own, with no food aid entering and the UN’s World Food Programme warning of worsening conditions for the 300,000 people still trapped inside.
After nearly 28 months of siege, the UN’s children agency Unicef and the World Food Programme (WFP) say famine could soon take hold in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.
“The situation in El Fasher is completely catastrophic; the city's population is on the verge of starvation,” said Leni Kinzli, WFP’s spokesperson in Sudan, speaking to RFI this week
“It is besieged, cut off from the rest of the country, and humanitarian access is extremely difficult.”
WFP says it has not been able to deliver food to the city for over a year. In the meantime, it has carried out cash transfers, but the blockade has made those nearly useless.
“Since the city is under blockade, the prices of basic necessities have skyrocketed, and people cannot even buy enough to make one meal a day,” Kinzli said.
Some residents are reportedly now eating animal feed and rubbish to survive. “And this is despite the fact that we are ready to intervene with food trucks if we are allowed to pass,” Kinzli added.
WFP is again calling for aid convoys to be allowed through.
Two years of devastation: Sudan’s war claims thousands and displaces millions
'Skin and bones'
The Sudanese army, at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023, recaptured Khartoum state in May, but widespread hunger continues to grip the heart of Africa's third-largest country.
Many children in Sudan are now “skin and bones”, UN officials said this week, and thousands of families in El-Fasher, more than 1,000 kilometres west of Khartoum, are at risk of starving.
“Everyone in El-Fasher is facing a daily struggle to survive,” said Eric Perdison, WFP’s regional director for eastern and southern Africa, on Tuesday.
RSF forces have surrounded the city since May. It is the last major urban area in Darfur still under army control.
“People's coping mechanisms have been completely exhausted by over two years of war,” Perdison said in a statement. “Without immediate and sustained access, lives will be lost.”
WFP says food prices in El-Fasher are now 460 percent higher than in the rest of the country. Soup kitchens have shut down, and aid remains blocked.
Unicef’s Sheldon Yett, who recently visited Sudan, warned of growing malnutrition.
“Malnutrition is rife, and many of the children are reduced to just skin and bones,” he said. Around 25 million people across Sudan face severe food insecurity, according to the UN.
UN urges action on Sudan's 'forgotten war' as humanitarian crisis takes hold
Acute hunger, limited access
Famine was first declared in the surrounding displacement camps last year, especially in Zamzam. The UN said the crisis would likely spread to the city itself by May.
Only a lack of reliable data has prevented a formal famine declaration for the wider region.
Aid agencies say insecurity is making it nearly impossible to act. In June, five humanitarian workers were killed when their UN convoy to El-Fasher was attacked.
“We have not had access to the horrible situation unfolding in El-Fasher, despite trying for months and months and months,” said Yett. “We have not been able to get supplies there.”
Nearly 40 percent of children under five in the area are acutely malnourished, UN data shows.
Residents often shelter in makeshift bunkers to avoid shelling as the RSF continues its push to take full control of Darfur.
In April, an RSF attack on Zamzam camp killed hundreds and forced hundreds of thousands to flee to el-Fasher and the nearby town of Tawila. A deadly cholera outbreak is now spreading there.
“Every day the conflict continues in Sudan, innocent lives are lost, communities are torn apart, and trauma continues to haunt generations,” said Radhouane Nouicer, the UN's expert on human rights in Sudan. “The ongoing war has devastated civilian lives and turned daily survival into a constant struggle.”
Children in crisis
Relative calm has returned to Khartoum, but children there still have only "limited, but growing access to safe water, food, healthcare and learning", according to Unicef's Yett.
In the two hardest-hit areas of Khartoum state, Jebel Awliya and Khartoum proper, "children and families in the neighbourhood are sheltered often in small, damaged or unfinished buildings", he added.
"We are on the verge of irreversible damage to an entire generation of children."
The war, now in its third year, has killed tens of thousands across Sudan, displaced millions and left the country's healthcare system in ruins.
The UN describes the conflict as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis.
(with newswires)
