El Fasher governor pleads for end to siege as residents eat animal feed

July 27, 2025 (EL FASHER)  – The governor of Sudan’s North Darfur state on Sunday directly appealed to army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to take urgent action to break a months-long siege on the city of El Fasher, warning that living conditions have become “unbearable” and residents have resorted to eating animal feed.

The city, a historic capital of the Darfur region and a key humanitarian hub, has been under siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2024. The RSF has blocked roads, preventing food, medicine, and aid from entering.

In a direct call to the country’s leader, Governor Alhafiz Bakhit urged Burhan “to move immediately to end the siege on El Fasher.”

“The living situation in El Fasher has become unbearable,” Bakhit said in a statement accompanying the appeal.

He said citizens were now relying on “ambaz,” a byproduct of peanut and sesame oil extraction commonly used as animal fodder, but noted that even this was becoming scarce.

The siege has led to a severe scarcity of food and life-saving medicines, with prices for available goods soaring. Bakhit stated that a quarter-sack of millet, the local staple food, cost about 500,000 Sudanese pounds but was largely unavailable.

According to traders, the supply of millet at Nivasha, the city’s only functioning market, had fallen to as little as five sacks in recent days.

The governor’s warning follows a United Nations assessment published on July 8, which found that 38% of children under five at displacement sites in the city were suffering from acute malnutrition, including 11% with the most severe form of the condition.