Famine has been confirmed in El-Fasher and parts of Kordofan, where fighting has been raging between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for power.
Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors said they would investigate the alleged RSF war crimes in El-Fasher, a city in North Darfur state that fell to the paramilitary force after 18 months of siege and fierce battles.
Famine in El-Fasher
According to a new report, released by the International Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), famine is confirmed in El-Fasher and the town of Kadugli, in the southern South Kordofan province, where families are trapped with no food, medicine, or relief supplies.
Moreover, the IPC report warned that more than 21 million people in Sudan are facing high levels of acute food insecurity, in the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
“Around 375,000 people nationwide are facing ‘catastrophic’ levels of hunger, meaning they are on the brink of starvation,” the report noted, adding that 6.3 million people across Sudan face extreme levels of hunger.
Famine also threatens 20 other areas across North, South, and East Darfur, as well as West and South Kordofan. “Famine and the risk of famine are urgent priorities, but they are only the most severe symptoms of a far broader and deepening crisis affecting millions across Sudan,” the IPC said.
Urgent Action
The IPC said that urgent action is needed to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. “This is a man-made emergency, and all steps needed to prevent further catastrophe are clear,” it stated.
In the light of this, the IPC report called for enforcing a ceasefire to prevent further loss of life and help contain the extreme levels of acute food insecurity and acute malnutrition. “Exert maximum diplomatic pressure on the parties to the conflict and their international supporters for a ceasefire and an end to the blockades —and ultimately an end to the conflict itself,” it said.
The report also called for protecting civilians and ensuring the freedom of movement, particularly for people trapped in El-Fasher, Kadugli, and Dilling towns.
Moreover, it urged for unhindered and sustained humanitarian access into Darfur and Kordofan, as well as increasing funding to assist local aid efforts in famine-affected areas.
El-Fasher Humanitarian Crisis
The RSF had besieged El-Fasher – the SAF’s last stronghold in Darfur – for 18 months before capturing the city last week. Reports and local testimonies indicated that the RSF has unleashed heinous attacks against civilians, killing hundreds while tens of thousands remain trapped in the city or have disappeared as they tried to escape.
Since the RSF seized El-Fasher, 70,894 people have been displaced, mostly on foot, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). However, Sudan director for the Norwegian Refugee Council, Shashwat Saraf, told the Associated Press (AP) that less than 6,000 have made it to the nearest camp in Tawila, located 65 km away, while nearly 1,000 people arrived in the last three days, including around 170 unaccompanied children.
“The numbers are still very few. We are not seeing the hundreds of thousands that we were expecting. If people are still in El-Fasher, it will be very difficult for them to survive,” he said, voicing concern that “a lot of people are stuck in locations from where it is not safe for them to move, and they need to pay to move and they don’t have money to pay.”
ICC Probe
Since the fall of El-Fasher, the UN warned against the atrocities committed by the RSF, calling for accountability for the perpetrators. “Since the RSF made a major incursion into the city on 23 October, we have received horrendous accounts of summary executions, mass killings, rapes, attacks against humanitarian workers, looting, abductions and forced displacement,” the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said on Friday.
“There must be independent, prompt, transparent and thorough investigations into all such breaches of international law, and for those responsible to be held to account,” the UN agency urged.
On Monday, the ICC Office of the Prosecutor said it was collecting evidence of the RSF’s alleged mass killings, rapes and other crimes in El-Fasher. “These atrocities are part of a broader pattern of violence that has afflicted the entire Darfur region since April 2023. Such acts, if substantiated, may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute,” they said in a statement.
The move comes as part of the ICC’s ongoing investigation of alleged genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur since 2005. “Within the ongoing investigation, the Office is taking immediate steps regarding the alleged crimes in El-Fasher to preserve and collect relevant evidence for its use in future prosecutions,” the statement noted.
