Staple grains vanish in Sudan’s besieged El Fasher, prices soar

July 30, 2025 (EL FASHER, North Sarfur) – Staple grains like millet and sorghum have vanished from markets in the besieged Sudanese city of El Fasher, traders said on Wednesday, raising fears of famine for hundreds of thousands of residents trapped by months of fighting.

“Sorghum and millet, the main food for the residents of El Fasher, have completely vanished today,” trader Hamed Mohammed told Sudan Tribune. He said a single sack of millet was sold early Wednesday for an unprecedented 6 million Sudanese pounds (about $2,500).

The city, the capital of North Darfur, has been under a tight siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2024. The RSF has deployed fighters to block all roads, preventing food, medicine, and aid from entering, and has dug deep trenches around the city to enforce the blockade.

The blockade has led to a humanitarian catastrophe. A United Nations assessment published on July 8 found that 38% of children under five in El Fasher’s displacement camps were suffering from acute malnutrition, with 11% facing the most severe form.

Amid the worsening crisis, a political leader allied with the RSF urged remaining civilians to flee the city, which he described as an active “military operations zone.”

For his part, al-Hadi Idris, head of the Sudan Liberation Movement – Transitional Council and appointed governor of Darfur by a pro-RSF alliance, told Sudan Tribune that humanitarian access to the city was now impossible. He said his forces had secured an evacuation corridor through the western part of El Fasher towards the town of Korma.

The call for evacuation follows a desperate appeal on July 27 from North Darfur’s army-aligned governor, Al-Hafiz Bakhit, who announced the “collapse of living conditions” and urged army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to take urgent action to break the siege.