The UN’s top humanitarian official for Sudan says the devastated city of El-Fasher in North Darfur resembles a “massive crime scene”, warning that tens of thousands of civilians still trapped there face starvation, disease and continuing violence.
UN Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown spoke after leading a rare, hours-long mission into the besieged city, which was seized by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters after a months-long blockade and brutal assault last year.
“It was a tense mission, because we’re going into what we don’t know, into what the UN has been describing as a massive crime scene,” Brown said, noting that the visit came shortly after peacekeepers were killed in nearby Kadugli.
Brown said only small numbers of civilians were visible along the team’s route, but the UN believes many more remain detained, injured or in hiding and in urgent need of medical evacuation. Villages around El-Fasher appeared completely abandoned, while those still in the city are sheltering in shattered buildings or makeshift camps with no clean water, toilets or adequate food.
Satellite imagery and survivor testimony have described El-Fasher as a “slaughterhouse”, with rights groups and analysts estimating that tens of thousands may have been killed when the RSF stormed the city after a 550-day siege.
Hundreds of civilians are believed to remain, facing extreme shortages of medicine, education and basic supplies. Food prices have skyrocketed amid the blockade and looting: local monitors report a kilogram of rice can cost the equivalent of US$100, far beyond what most families can pay.
For months, El-Fasher — once home to hundreds of thousands — has been largely cut off as the wider war between Sudan’s army and the RSF devastates the country. Almost 13 million people have been displaced nationwide and about 400,000 killed since fighting erupted in April 2023, according to recent estimates.
Brown said the scenes in and around the city fit into a wider “pattern of atrocities” across Sudan, including mass killings, sexual violence and the destruction of entire communities in Darfur and beyond.
She urged immediate, sustained humanitarian access and further UN assessments, warning that without a major scale-up of aid and protection, many more civilians could die in the coming weeks.
“This is not just a city in crisis,” she said. “It is evidence of what happens when a population is left without protection, without food, and without the world paying enough attention.”
