The other starvation crisis: Thousands in Sudan face drones, artillery firing as food supplies go dry

Hundreds of thousands of people are starving and being bombarded by artillery and drones in the Sudanese army’s last stronghold in western Darfur, while those who leave face disease and brutal assaults.

Al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur state, is the largest surviving frontline in the region between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and it is under fire at a critical juncture in the civil war, which is now in its third year.

“The RSF’s artillery and drones are shelling al-Fashir morning and night,” one resident told Reuters. Electricity was completely shut down, bakeries were closed and medical supplies scarce, he added.

“The number of people dying has increased every day and the cemeteries are expanding,” he said.

The Sudanese army and the RSF went to war in April 2023 when the erstwhile partners disagreed on how to integrate their forces.

The RSF made swift advances in central Sudan, including the capital, Khartoum, but the army drove them westward this year, intensifying the conflict in al-Fashir.

The fall of the city would give the RSF control of practically all of Darfur, a vast area bordering Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan, paving the way for Sudan’s de facto division according to experts.

Along with the army and its supporters, hundreds of thousands of al-Fashir inhabitants and those displaced by earlier battles are besieged, many of whom are living in camps that are already in starvation, according to observers.

One doctor, who asked not to be named for her safety, said hunger was an even bigger problem than the shelling.

“The children are malnourished, the adults are malnourished. Even I today haven’t had any breakfast because I can’t find anything,” she said.

The RSF has blocked food supplies and aid convoys trying to reach the city have been attacked, locals said. Prices for the goods traders are able to smuggle in cost more than five times the national average.

Many people have resorted to eating hay or ambaz, a type of animal feed made out of peanut shells, residents told Reuters. One advocacy group said even ambaz was running out.

The RSF, which has its roots in the Janjaweed militias accused of atrocities in Darfur in the early 2000s, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Risks of flight

Many residents fleeing the city have sought shelter in Tawila, about 60 km (40 miles) west. Some of those who made it told Reuters they were attacked by groups of RSF fighters along the way.

“We fled to Shagra (village) first before getting to Tawila and they attacked us again,” 19-year-old Enaam Abdallah said.

“If they find your phone, they take it. Money, they take it. A donkey or anything, they’ll take it. They killed people in front of us and kidnapped girls in front of us,” she said.

On Monday, Emergency Lawyers, a human rights group, said at least 14 people fleeing al-Fashir were killed and dozens injured when they were attacked in a village along the route.

Tawila is hosting more than half a million displaced people, most of whom have arrived since April, when the RSF stepped up its assault on al-Fashir and attacked the massive Zamzam displacement camp to the city’s south.

But Tawila offers little aid or shelter, as humanitarian organisations are stretched by foreign aid cuts. People who arrived there told Reuters they receive small amounts of grain, including sorghum and rice, but amounts were varying and insufficient.

Sudan is in the throes of the rainy season, which in combination with poor living conditions and inadequate sanitation has led to an outbreak of cholera.

Since mid-June, aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres has treated 2,500 cases of cholera, a spokesperson told Reuters.

Some 52 people have died from the disease, according to the Coordinating Committee for Displaced People, a Sudanese advocacy group that operates across Darfur.

Vaccines needed to stem the outbreak, if provided, will take time to arrive given the rains.

An assessment by the Norwegian Refugee Council found that only 10% of people in Tawila had reliable access to water, and even fewer had access to latrines. Most families report eating one meal a day or less, the organisation said.

“We don’t have houses to protect us from the rain and we don’t have tarps. We have to wait for the rain to stop for the children to sleep,” mother-of-four Huda Ali said as she sat among roofless shelters made of straw.

She said she tried to make sure her children washed their hands and only ate food that had been properly heated.

The United Nations called for a humanitarian pause to fighting in al-Fashir last month as the rainy season began, but the RSF rejected the call.

Fighting has also raged across Sudan’s Kordofan region, which borders Darfur, as the two sides fight to demarcate clear zones of control amid stalled mediation efforts.