Starvation Looms Over El-Fasher Amid Ongoing Sudanese Civil War

The World Food Programme alerts that El-Fasher's residents face starvation due to ongoing conflict and blockades, with reports of malnutrition and desperate survival tactics emerging amid intense fighting between Sudan's military and paramilitary forces.

Residents in the besieged city of El-Fasher, Sudan, are facing an acute starvation crisis, according to warnings from the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP). The agency reported that there have been no food deliveries to the western Darfur city for over a year, exacerbating the dire humanitarian situation for the approximately 300,000 people still living there. El-Fasher has been surrounded by paramilitary forces from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for almost 16 months, as they continue to battle for control against Sudan's military.

The civil war, which erupted in April 2023, has led to one of the world's gravest humanitarian crises, marked by severe food shortages and rampant malnutrition. Recent statements from UNICEF suggest that many children in Sudan are suffering from extreme malnutrition, with reports indicating that some are "reduced to skin and bones." The North Darfur Governor, Al-Hafiz Bakhit, who supports the military-led government, called the living conditions in El-Fasher unbearable and has sought urgent international assistance.

Prices for food supplies in El-Fasher have skyrocketed due to the ongoing strife, leading residents to resort to consuming animal feed and food waste to survive. Eric Perdison, WFP’s regional director, described the daily struggle for survival faced by the city's residents, emphasizing that extended war has exhausted their coping mechanisms. Perdison warned that without immediate humanitarian access, lives will likely be lost in this worsening situation.

An eight-year-old girl who fled the city shared harrowing accounts of daily life, highlighting the overwhelming presence of hunger and bombardments. The WFP has food aid ready to go but is caught in conflict, awaiting agreement from the RSF to allow a temporary truce enabling aid delivery. Previous efforts at establishing humanitarian ceasefires have faltered amid mutual accusations of aggression between the military and the RSF.

More than one million people have already fled El-Fasher since the commencement of the conflict, prompting urgent calls for aid as rainy season conditions threaten to obstruct any ongoing food assistance efforts. Despite some progress in delivering aid to other parts of Darfur, the situation is fragile, and the forecast shows a potential reversal of these gains.

UNICEF officials reiterated the critical situation, particularly for children, emphasizing that the operational hiccups were not due to a lack of knowledge or resources but rather due to a collective failure to act decisively. There is a pressing need for urgent humanitarian intervention to avert an impending catastrophe.