The International Organization for Migration warned on Tuesday of an imminent catastrophe in North Darfur, western Sudan, in light of the increasing numbers of people displaced by fighting after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces took control of the regional capital, El Fasher, in October, after about a year and a half of siege imposed by the armed forces on the city.
The organization’s Director-General, Amy Pope, said, “The crisis in El Fasher is a direct result of nearly 18 months of siege that prevented families from obtaining food, water, and medical care,” noting that “the lack of security and lack of supplies means that only a small portion of those in need have been reached.”
“Without safe access and urgent funding, humanitarian operations risk being halted at a time when communities need them most,” he stressed, amid reports of widespread atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces in El Fasher, including summary executions, kidnapping and rape, among others.
Over the past two weeks, RSF attacks on El Fasher have caused some 90,000 people to flee via unsafe roads, with almost no access to food, water or medical care. In addition, tens of thousands of people remain trapped inside the city, mired in a communications blackout, making it difficult to know the situation.
The International Organization for Migration stressed that the violence is expanding to other areas in Sudan, as nearly 39,000 people were displaced between October 26 and November 9 due to fighting in North Kordofan, which is also the scene of attacks by the Rapid Support Forces led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hemedti.”
In this sense, she reiterated that despite this increase in needs, humanitarian operations are at risk of collapse due to the lack of supplies and insecurity faced by convoys, which also suffer from access restrictions that prevent them from delivering the aid they carry, and for which IOM has requested more funding and security guarantees.
Sudan’s civil war was sparked by strong disagreements over the process of integrating the paramilitary group into the armed forces, a situation that derailed the transition process after the overthrow of Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s regime in 2019, which was already damaged after the coup that ousted then-Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in 2021.
The conflict, marked by the intervention of several countries to support the warring parties, has plunged the country into one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with millions displaced and refugees and facing international concern over the spread of disease and damage to vital infrastructure, preventing hundreds of thousands of victims from accessing care.
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