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Sudan: UN describes an unprecedented humanitarian crisis
The United Nations has described the situation in Sudan as an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, following a rare visit by a UN team to the besieged city of El-Fasher in the western Darfur region.
For the first time since the city fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after more than 500 days of siege, UN humanitarian coordinator Denise Brown was able to enter El-Fasher for a few hours, after what she described as “intense negotiations.”
“El-Fasher is a ghost of its former self,” Brown said in an interview with AFP on Monday, calling the city “a crime scene” and “one of the epicenters of human suffering” in Sudan’s war, which has raged since April 2023 between the regular army and paramilitary forces.
Large parts of the city have been destroyed. In October, the RSF seized the last army stronghold in Darfur during a violent offensive marked by executions, looting and sexual violence. Since then, the city has been cut off from the outside world under a communications blackout.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 107,000 people have fled El-Fasher. The number of civilians still trapped inside remains unknown; before the war, the city was home to over one million people.
Brown described survivors living under plastic sheets, without access to clean water or sanitation, in what she called “undignified and dangerous conditions.” One of the last functioning hospitals is still standing but is critically short of antibiotics and medical equipment.
After 18 months without humanitarian aid, residents have resorted to eating animal feed to survive. In November, the UN officially confirmed that famine had taken hold in the city.
“This is only the tip of the iceberg,” Brown warned, noting the presence of unexploded ordnance and landmines. Since the conflict began, 128 humanitarian workers have been killed in Sudan.
The war has left tens of thousands dead, displaced more than 11 million people, and triggered what the UN has called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
