UN warns aid ‘on the brink of collapse’ in Sudan after paramilitary forces seize major city

Relief groups say hunger and disease are worsening, while survivors describe horrific violence at the hands of the Rapid Support Forces

Sudanese refugees queue to fill jerrycans with water at Oure Cassoni camp in Chad (AFP via Getty Images)

The United Nations (UN) has warned that aid operations in Sudan’s North Darfur are close to collapse after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized el-Fasher last month.

Relief groups say hunger and disease are worsening, while survivors describe massacres and widespread violence.

The RSF captured el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur and the last major city outside its control in the wider Darfur region, on 26 October.

Survivor accounts, satellite images and video evidence suggest more than 1,500 people were killed in ethnically targeted attacks in the days that followed.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said the humanitarian situation had deteriorated sharply.

Children in a refugee camp in Sudan (Norwegian Refugee Council)

“Despite the rising need, humanitarian operations are now on the brink of collapse,” the agency said in a statement. “Warehouses are nearly empty, aid convoys face significant insecurity, and access restrictions continue to prevent the delivery of sufficient aid.”

Amy Pope, the IOM’s director general, said: “Our teams are responding, but insecurity and depleted supplies mean we are only reaching a fraction of those in need.

“Without safe access and urgent funding, humanitarian operations risk grinding to a halt at the very moment communities need support the most.”

Since the RSF seized el-Fasher from the rival military, more than 16,200 people have fled to the camps in Tawila, while around 82,000 people had fled the city and surrounding areas as of last week. Many have taken dangerous routes without food, water or medical help.

Doctors Without Borders said malnutrition in the camps had reached “staggering” levels. The group said more than 70% of children under five who reached Tawila between the fall of el-Fasher and 3 November were acutely malnourished, with more than a third suffering severe acute malnutrition.

“The true scale of the crisis is likely far worse than reported,” it said.

The World Health Organisation said thousands of people remain trapped in the city with almost no access to food, clean water or medicine.

One witness told Reuters that RSF trucks “sprayed civilians with machine gun fire and crushed them with their vehicles. Young people, elderly, children, they ran them over.” Another said he saw militiamen raiding homes and killing 50 to 60 people in a single street.

The RSF has been fighting Sudan’s army since April 2023, when tensions between the two former allies erupted into war.