Sudan (TDI): The Parliamentary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have held the capital of North Darfur hostage in a 14-month siege, which has blocked food and fuel from entering the area and has led to force starvation of 900,000 people.
The UN food agency has warned about the starving people in the besieged Sudanese city of el-Fasher. The World Food Program (WFP) said that it’s been more than a year since it was able to deliver food by road to the city in the western Darfur region.
The warnings from the UN and WFP come as the locals started spreading the video of people dying from starvation. The UN’s children’s agency (UNICEF) has also issued a statement warning about the malnutrition that is spreading across the region, with many children “reduced to skin and bones”.
Governor Al-Hafiz Bakhit of North Darfur recently appealed for urgent help and support as the situation in the city of el-Fasher becomes devastating and unbearable. It is reported by the UN that in early July, 38% of children under the age of five in camps for internally displaced people within and near el-Fasher suffered from acute malnutrition.
Read More: Five Dead in Uganda-South Sudan Border Clash
The WFP said that the food shortages also led to high prices for scarce supplies in el-Fasher, and the situation is so bad that people have started feeding on animal food waste to survive.
WFP’s regional director for eastern and southern Africa said, “Everyone in el-Fasher is facing a daily struggle to survive. People’s coping mechanisms have been completely exhausted by over two years of war. Without immediate and sustained access, lives will be lost”.
The WFP also said that they had trucks full of food and assistance and even got the permission of clearance from the Sudanese government to proceed to el-Fasher, but they are still waiting for a word from RSF on whether they are willing to pause the fighting and allow the assistance.
Sudan got involved in a civil war in April 2023 due to a power struggle that erupted between the army and its former ally, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), leading to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and the deaths of millions of people.
An IR student whose interest lies in diplomacy and current affairs and a part time debater
