The undersigned organizations warn of a rapidly worsening food crisis in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, where the ongoing siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since May 2024 has pushed the city to the brink of famine. In the first week of August 2025 alone, dozens of civilians — most of them children and elderly people in displacement camps — died from malnutrition, as food stocks in the city have nearly collapsed.
According to an official from the Darfur Regional Ministry of Health, more than 58 deaths were recorded in just one week due to the absence of grain and other essential food supplies. Other media sources put the toll at 63 deaths, noting that many victims could not reach hospitals due to ongoing violence. With humanitarian assistance cut off for months, the death toll is expected to rise further.
Eyewitnesses inside El Fasher describe a city on the edge of survival. Most residents now rely on a single meal per day, and some have been forced to eat animal feed — locally known as “ampaz” — which is also running out. Bakeries have closed, electricity and communications are cut, and basic goods are prohibitively expensive.
The spokesperson for Zamzam camp for the displaced, Mohamed Khamis Douda, confirmed that food prices have reached record levels, with the price of a sack of millet rising to 7.2 million Sudanese pounds (around 3,000 US dollars), and a sack of sorghum to 6.57 million pounds (about 2,740 US dollars). He stressed that the blockade is “a deliberate tool of starvation,” denouncing the silence of international, regional, and Sudanese actors in the face of the catastrophic humanitarian situation. Moreover, health conditions have severely deteriorated due to the spread of diseases such as cholera and malnutrition, alongside the continued targeting of health centers and institutions, and the killing of doctors and medical staff.
The World Food Program (WFP) has warned that El Fasher’s population faces imminent starvation, with all roads to the city blocked for over a year. While WFP provides digital cash assistance to around 250,000 people, it stresses that this is nowhere near enough to meet the vast needs. Despite receiving official permits to send an aid convoy on August 1, the RSF has yet to commit to a ceasefire that would allow safe passage, having previously rejected a humanitarian truce proposed by the UN Secretary-General in June.
The undersigned organizations strongly condemn the siege on El Fasher by the RSF and allied militia, calling it a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and a deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war. They stress that this constitutes a grave humanitarian crime demanding urgent international action.
We call for:
- The full implementation of Security Council Resolution 2736, mandating the immediate lifting of the blockade and unconditional humanitarian access to El Fasher.
- The establishment of safe humanitarian corridors under the supervision of the United Nations and other international organizations.
- Accountability for all those obstructing aid or weaponizing starvation against civilians.
- Stronger international and regional pressure to protect civilians and end ongoing abuses.
Signatories
Committee for Justice
AWAFY Sudanese Organization
Sudan Rights Watch Network
Hraak for Change and Youth Empowerment
