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- Since May last year, El-Fasher has been under siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which have been at war with Sudan’s regular army since April 2023
PORT SUDAN: Malnutrition has claimed the lives of at least 63 people, mostly women and children, in just one week in Sudan’s besieged city of El-Fasher, a health official said on Sunday.
The official said the figure only included those who managed to reach hospitals, adding that many families buried their dead without seeking medical help due to poor security conditions and a lack of transportation.
Since May last year, El-Fasher has been under siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which have been at war with Sudan’s regular army since April 2023.
The city remains the last major Darfur urban center in army control and has recently come under renewed attack by the RSF after the group withdrew from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, earlier this year.
BACKGROUND
The city remains the last major Darfur urban center in army control and has recently come under renewed attack by the Rapid Support Forces.
A major RSF offensive on the nearby Zamzam displacement camp in April forced tens of thousands of people to flee again — many of them now sheltering inside El-Fasher.
Community kitchens — once a lifeline — have largely shut down due to a lack of supplies.
Some families are reportedly surviving on animal fodder or food waste.
Nearly 40 percent of children under five in El-Fasher are now acutely malnourished, with 11 percent suffering from severe acute malnutrition, according to UN figures.
The rainy season, which peaks in August, is further complicating efforts to reach the city.
Roads are rapidly deteriorating, making aid deliveries difficult if not impossible.
The war, now in its third year, has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions, and created what the United Nations describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises.
Rapid Support Forces killed 18 civilians in an attack on two villages west of Khartoum earlier this week, a monitoring group said on Saturday.
The attack occurred on Thursday in North Kordofan state, which is key to the RSF’s fuel smuggling route from Libya.
The area has been a major battleground between the army and the paramilitaries for months, and communications lines with the rest of the world have been mostly cut off.
According to the Emergency Lawyers human rights group, which has documented abuses since the start of the war two years ago, the attack on the two villages in North Kordofan “killed 18 civilians and wounded dozens.”
The wounded were transferred to the state capital of El-Obeid for treatment.
Tolls are nearly impossible to independently verify in Sudan, as many medical facilities have been forced out of service and there is limited media access.