The city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur has become an “epicentre of child suffering”, with starvation, mass displacement, and relentless violence taking a catastrophic toll following nearly 17 months under siege, the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) has warned.
At least 600,000 people – half of them children – have been forced to flee el-Fasher and surrounding camps in recent months amid the ongoing siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to the agency. The RSF has been fighting government forces since the civil war broke out in April of 2023.
An estimated 260,000 civilians, including 130,000 children, remain trapped inside el-Fasher, cut off from aid for more than 16 months, the agency said.
“We are witnessing a devastating tragedy – children in el-Fasher are starving while UNICEF’s lifesaving nutrition services are being blocked,” UNICEF chief Catherine Russell said. “Blocking humanitarian access is a grave violation of children’s rights, and the lives of children are hanging in the balance.”
Since the siege began in April 2024, UNICEF has verified more than 1,100 “grave violations”, including the killing and maiming of more than 1,000 children. Dozens have been subjected to sexual violence, while others have been abducted or recruited by armed groups. The real scale, the agency said, is likely far higher.
This week, reports emerged of another mass casualty incident, with seven children killed in an attack on Abu Shouk displacement camp, just outside the city.
The RSF siege has cut off supply lines, leaving health facilities unable to function. UNICEF estimates that 6,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition have been left without treatment, as mobile nutrition teams were forced to halt operations after supplies ran out.
Since January, more than 10,000 children have been treated for acute malnutrition, but services have now been suspended. Last week alone, 63 people, mostly women and children, died of hunger, the agency said.
Sudan’s worst cholera outbreak in decades has compounded the crisis, with nearly 100,000 suspected cases and 2,400 deaths nationwide since last year. In Darfur alone, almost 5,000 cases and 98 deaths have been reported, UNICEF said.
The war in Sudan began in April 2023, when a tenuous powersharing agreement collapsed.
Violence spurred by long-simmering tensions between Sudan’s military, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, erupted in the capital, Khartoum. It soon spread to other areas, including the Darfur region in the country’s west, an RSF stronghold.
Some 40,000 people have since been killed and nearly 13 million displaced, UN agencies say, while nearly 25 million people continue to experience acute hunger.
Representatives of UNICEF urged Sudan’s warring parties to halt fighting and to allow immediate, safe and sustained humanitarian access to el-Fasher and other conflict-hit areas.
“Children must be protected at all times,” Russell said. “They must have access to life-saving aid.”
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