El Fasher faces starvation as RSF siege cuts supplies, activists warn
May 28, 2025 (EL FASHER) – Activists warned on Wednesday of a looming collapse in living conditions in El Fasher, capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, as essential goods vanish from remaining markets, threatening thousands of trapped residents with starvation.
A siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the historic capital of the Darfur region since April 2024 has worsened residents’ suffering, leading to severe food and medicine shortages amid fears of widespread famine and disease, according to reports.
The El Fasher Resistance Committees Coordination said in a statement: “The city’s markets have become empty, resembling closed warehouses more than hubs of life. Shelves are bare, essential goods are vanishing before citizens’ eyes, and prices are skyrocketing without limit.”
The Coordination said a sack of sugar in El Fasher markets now costs nearly 2 billion Sudanese pounds, while a sack of millet, a staple food for residents, is 650,000 pounds.
Famine now threatens those trapped in the city as markets are empty of goods, the statement added. The city’s markets have few remaining goods, sold at “unimaginable prices” due to supply disruptions from the siege, the Coordination said.
Essential items like oil, flour, rice, and soap are almost non-existent, it said, adding that some traders have left the markets while others hoard remaining stock, hoping for higher prices.
Salt has also run out, forcing residents to extract hardened salt from pits, known as “gubwat,” beneath defunct bakeries, even though it is unfit for consumption. Sudanese bakeries traditionally used salt in these pits to retain oven heat.
A trader in El Fasher’s Nivasha market told the Sudan Tribune news outlet that food supplies could run out completely within three weeks unless central authorities intervene with airdrops.
The price of a sack of sorghum has risen to about 550,000 Sudanese pounds, while a pound (around 0.45 kg) of dried okra sells for 43,000 pounds, and dried tomato paste for 15,000 pounds per pound, he told Sudan Tribune. A carton of laundry soap reached 700,000 pounds, with these items only available from a few merchants, the trader said.
The Nivasha market, reportedly the only one in El Fasher still operating at around 50% capacity, faces daily artillery shelling by the RSF, according to the Sudan Tribune report.
Sudan Tribune quoted three people in El Fasher, including two from the Abu Shouk camp north of the city, who said hunger was besieging most trapped residents, as they were unable to secure food due to depleted supplies and soaring prices of remaining items.
Thousands in El Fasher and the Abu Shouk camp are surviving on “imbaz,” a peanut residue commonly used as animal fodder. Displaced people are crowding the oil presses in Abu Shouk camp to obtain it.