The Regional Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) for Eastern and Southern Africa, Eric Pedersen, said that the war-besieged city of El-Fasher in North Darfur is living through a tragedy, with hundreds of thousands of trapped people facing death by starvation while the city remains cut off from the WFP and other humanitarian aid.
According to the UN official, some residents of El-Fasher are surviving on animal fodder and food scraps. While WFP continues to provide digital cash support to about a quarter of a million people in the city—allowing them to buy the dwindling food available in the markets—this assistance does not meet the rapidly growing needs, making in-kind food aid essential to address hunger on a wide scale.
He confirmed that prices have skyrocketed due to the closure of trade routes and supply lines into El-Fasher, including the cost of basic goods such as flour and sorghum. Community kitchens, established to feed the hungry, have stopped operating. Many who managed to flee the city describe rampant violence, looting, and sexual assaults.
Pedersen warned: “People will die without immediate and sustained access for humanitarian workers.”
For her part, WFP’s Director of Supply Chain and Aid Delivery, Corinne Fleischer, said: “The World Food Programme is ready with trucks full of food aid to send to El-Fasher. We urgently need guarantees of safe passage.”
She noted that WFP has received clearances from the Humanitarian Aid Commission in Port Sudan to allow a humanitarian convoy to move towards El-Fasher. However, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have besieged the capital of North Darfur for more than a year, have not yet declared their support for halting the fighting to allow humanitarian supplies into the city.
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