The ongoing siege and hostilities in El Fasher, the capital of Sudan's North Darfur State, have left at least 782 civilians dead and more than 1,143 injured, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said in a report released on Friday. OHCHR said thousands of civilians are besieged, without guarantees of safe passage out of the city, and at risk of death or injury from indiscriminate attacks by all parties to the conflict.
After more than 20 months of war in Sudan, the situation remains in dire in many parts of the country, particularly in Sudan’s Darfur region.
“The continuing siege of El Fasher and the relentless fighting are devastating lives everyday on a massive scale,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk in a statement.
“This alarming situation cannot continue. The Rapid Support Forces [RSF] must end this horrible siege. And I urge all parties to the conflict to stop attacks on civilians and civilian objects. I call on them to comply with their obligations and commitments under international law.”
In June 2024, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2736 (2024), demanding that the RSF cease its siege of El Fasher and calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities and de-escalation in and around the town. RSF has not complied.
In the seven months since the siege began, El Fasher has become a battleground between the RSF and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), backed by their allied Joint Forces - comprising the Sudan Liberation Movement/Minni Minawi, the Justice and Equality Movement/Jibril Ibrahim and other smaller armed groups.
The report states that the parties have used explosive weapons in populated areas in a manner that raises serious concerns about respect for the principle of precaution and the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks.
Based on interviews conducted in October and November with dozens of people who managed to flee El Fasher, and corroborated by several independent sources, OHCHR reports that there has been regular and intense shelling of densely populated residential areas by the RSF, recurrent aerial bombardments by the SAF, and artillery shelling by both the SAF and its allied Joint Forces.
The report warns that attacks against civilians and civilian objects may amount to war crimes.
According to OHCHR, the warring parties engaged in heavy shelling of civilian areas, killing dozens of civilians. They also used houses for military purposes and attacked and looted markets. The report also documents repeated RSF attacks on camps housing internally displaced people (IDPs), in particular Zamzam and Abu Shouk.
Famine conditions are reported in North Darfur, including in Zamzam IDP camp, Sudan's largest IDP camp. Zamzam IDP camp, located about 15 km south of El Fasher town and currently home to hundreds of thousands of IDPs, has seen an increased presence of SAF-allied Joint Forces and has been shelled by the RSF, reportedly killing displaced people there.
While the report covers the period from May to November, since the beginning of December there has been a continued escalation and expansion of the conflict in besieged El Fasher and neighbouring localities, including a number of attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, such as the repeated shelling of the Zamzam IDP camp.
“Any large-scale attack on Zamzam camp and El Fasher city will catapult civilian suffering to catastrophic levels, deepening the already dire humanitarian situation, including famine conditions,” said Türk.
“All efforts must be taken, including by the international community, to prevent such an attack and to halt the siege.”
The UN rights chief also called on all parties to the conflict to embrace mediation efforts in good faith with a view to an immediate cessation of hostilities.
In recent days, there have been frequent reports of shelling and air strikes on civilian areas in parts of Darfur and Khartoum, with reports of large-scale civilian casualties and the destruction of homes, markets and medical facilities.
Hostilities are widespread and have been reported in the urban areas of El Fasher, Al Kuma, Kabkabiya and Kutum in North Darfur, as well as Nyala in South Darfur and Greater Khartoum itself. Fighting also continues in Al Jazirah State, while new clashes in White Nile and Blue Nile states are causing displacement, including into South Sudan.
Briefing the UN Security Council on the situation in Sudan on Thursday, Edem Wosornu, a senior official at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), pointed to the "unbearable" number of civilians killed and injured in the war.
“The war in Sudan has raged for over 20 months, and its horrendous human toll continues to show. Fierce hostilities in populated areas escalating and spreading, with evident disregard for international humanitarian law. Civilians killed and injured in unbearable numbers,” said Wosornu, OCHA's Director of Operations and Advocacy.
She was speaking on behalf of the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, who has been travelling inside Syria in recent days and was due to brief remotely from Turkey but was unable to connect.
“Millions stalked by the threat of famine, in the world’s largest hunger crisis. Sexual violence rife. Education and healthcare facilities in ruins, while cholera and other diseases spread,” Wosornu said, adding that the amount of humanitarian aid reaching people in need remains a fraction of what is needed.
Outlining three key demands for the Security Council, Wosornu stressed that first, the warring parties must comply with international humanitarian law, including ending the appalling toll on civilians, sparing vital infrastructure and stopping sexual violence. Second, Council members must use their influence to ensure that all humanitarian access routes are open.
“Third, money. In 2024, humanitarian organizations faced significant funding gaps. We call on donors to provide the $4.2 billion humanitarians need to support nearly 21 million people inside Sudan next year; and the $1.8 billion needed to support 5 million people – primarily refugees – in seven neighboring countries,” Wosornu said
Also on Thursday, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) warned that Sudan, the only place globally where famine has been confirmed to date, risks becoming the largest global hunger crisis in recent history. While famine is currently affecting the Zamzam camp in North Darfur, 13 other areas are at risk of famine.
Sudan is already experiencing the world's largest hunger crisis, with more than half of the country's population - nearly 26 million people - facing high levels of acute hunger, including some 755,000 facing catastrophic levels of hunger.
Famine was confirmed in Zamzam camp in North Darfur in July. While a WFP convoy reached the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur on 22 November, a second convoy was delayed by an escalation in heavy fighting.
A record 4.7 million children under five and pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls suffer from acute malnutrition. Nearly 1.7 million people across the country are either facing famine or at risk of famine. The 14 famine and famine risk areas are concentrated in places where the fighting is most intense.
WFP called on world leaders to treat the crisis in Sudan with the urgency it deserves, before it further destabilizes the already fragile region. The international community must step up its attention, diplomatic efforts and funding.
The UN agency has scaled up its operations across Sudan as part of an expanded effort to reach millions of people in the country's most vulnerable and isolated conflict areas. In October, WFP reached 2.8 million people - the highest number for any month since the conflict began in mid-April 2023.
In a related development on Friday, WFP reported the deaths of three members of its Sudan country team. According to the UN agency, the staff members lost their lives after an airstrike hit the WFP field office compound in Yabus, Blue Nile State, on Thursday evening.
“Any loss of life in humanitarian service is unconscionable. Humanitarians are not, and must never be, a target. Yet a record number have lost their lives in 2024,” said Cindy McCain, Executive Director of the World Food Programme, in a statement.
“Our team members’ unnecessary deaths are another reminder of the risks that humanitarian workers face in conflict settings and complex operating environments like Sudan. We continue to urge world leaders to advocate for the protection of our dedicated women and men as they risk their own lives to provide life-saving assistance to others.”
According to the UN, 2024 is the deadliest year on record for aid workers in Sudan.
Meanwhile, some 15.6 million people have been displaced by conflict in Sudan, making it the largest displacement crisis in the world. The vast majority of the displaced - more than 12.3 million women, children and men - have been uprooted by the war, which erupted in April 2023 and continues unabated.
Over the course of twenty months, more than 12.3 million people have been displaced as a result of the ongoing conflict, including nearly 9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and more than 3.3 million people who have crossed borders into other countries.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday that it continues to work with aid partners in close cooperation with governments and national and local organizations in neighbouring countries to respond to the needs of the more than 3 million new refugees, asylum seekers and returnees who have crossed borders in search of safety.
According to UNHCR, the most urgent needs are water, food, shelter, health and cash assistance, as well as protection services. The UN agency warned that the dire health situation of the new arrivals is of particular concern and requires urgent attention. Nearly 900,000 people have crossed into South Sudan. With some 722,000 people crossing the border, Chad has seen the largest influx of refugees in its history.
According to the latest UN estimates, around 30.4 million people in Sudan - two-thirds of the population - will be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2025, making Sudan not only the largest and fastest-growing displacement and hunger crisis, but also the largest overall humanitarian crisis in the world.
Further information
Full text: Report of OHCHR Sudan Country Office on the siege of El Fasher, North Darfur since May 2024, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, released December 20, 2024
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/sudan/ohchr-sudan-country-office-fasher-north-darfur-siege-may-1-en.pdf
Full text: OCHA appeals to Security Council to ensure all aid relief routes "are open" in Sudan, Security Council briefing on the humanitarian situation in Sudan, 19 December 2024, Edem Wosornu, OCHA Director of Operations and Advocacy, on behalf of Tom Fletcher, USG for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, delivered on December 19, 2024
https://www.unocha.org/news/ocha-appeals-security-council-ensure-all-aid-relief-routes-are-open-sudan