As the siege imposed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) around the Sudanese city of El Fasher tightens, a small group who managed to afford the cost of escape said they had been living under constant shelling and had to negotiate with RSF forces at checkpoints to leave the city, where residents have resorted to eating animal fodder.
A United Nations fact-finding mission concluded last week that the RSF paramilitary committed crimes against humanity in El Fasher, the last stronghold of the Sudanese army in the Darfur region in western Sudan.
Civilian Suffering
Dar Al-Salam Hamid, one of the escapees, said: “Those who are told are not like those who have witnessed it, but we truly suffered in El Fasher.”
When she and her family decided to leave, she said RSF soldiers subjected them to thorough searches and robbed them along the way.
Speaking to Reuters at a camp in Al-Dabba, an area under Sudanese army control, she said: “We suffered real misery at the hands of this group. They robbed us, took my phone, and searched us in ways that left us helpless. May God spare us from seeing them again.”
The RSF did not respond to requests for comment.
The World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis
The war, now in its third year between the RSF and the Sudanese army, has led the UN to describe the situation as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with famine spreading across Sudan to include El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.
The city has become a major frontline in the war, as the RSF seeks to consolidate its control over Darfur and establish a parallel government. Leaders of that government took an oath of office last month and began appointing ministers.
According to UN estimates, nearly half a million people have fled El Fasher since fighting began there in May 2024, while 270,000 remain trapped.
Mass Deaths
Ahmed Haj Ali and his family left the city last week, arriving in Al-Dabba just a few days ago. Reuters spoke with more than a dozen people who fled.
Haj said: “I left El Fasher on Friday because of the dire living conditions, the shelling, humiliation, and so many other hardships. The situation is unbearable — no treatment, no food. People are suffering greatly. Dozens are being killed, hospitals are overwhelmed with the wounded, and there aren’t even enough bandages to stop the bleeding.”
The army and allied joint forces have maintained control over El Fasher. Despite RSF advances near the army’s general command last week, the military launched drone strikes in recent days that forced them to retreat.
The joint forces are largely composed of non-Arab tribes, historically in conflict with the Arab tribes forming the RSF’s backbone. This has fueled ethnically targeted attacks, including one during the RSF’s capture of the vast Zamzam displacement camp in April.
Civilians Trapped
One resident, speaking anonymously for fear of his life, said the RSF recently expanded trenches and barricades stretching 31 kilometers around much of the city, making it extremely difficult for civilians to leave and forcing smugglers to carry food supplies on foot.
As a result, the price of a container of millet — enough to prepare one meal for three to five people — has risen above $35, while a pound of sugar (450 grams) now costs nearly $20.
Residents also said that the price of ambaz — a type of animal fodder most people now rely on — has increased sixfold and become scarce.
A senior military source said the army launched a major air and ground offensive in neighboring North Kordofan state on Sunday, aiming to break the siege on El Fasher as well as on the towns of Dilling and Kadugli further south.
Starvation and Sexual Violence
The UN fact-finding mission concluded that RSF forces in El Fasher “committed the war crime of deliberately using starvation as a method of warfare,” adding that depriving individuals of food, destroying hospitals, and obstructing humanitarian aid “may also amount to crimes against humanity or even genocide.”
In a statement issued last week, UN Women said rape and sexual assaults have been used as weapons of war in North Darfur, adding: “Pregnant women are giving birth with untrained midwives, with no access to care during obstructed labor.”
Ali, another escapee, said he and his brother were beaten at a checkpoint when leaving El Fasher at dawn. He added: “I left because of the harsh living conditions, the shelling, the humiliation, and many other reasons.”
He explained that leaving the city is not only dangerous but also extremely expensive, costing 5 million Sudanese pounds (about $1,600). Few people can afford such amounts, and RSF members have turned the flight from the city, much like smuggling, into a side business.
“That is why people are forced to stay. Many remain behind — we left them, and they are still there,” he said.
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