Sudan PM urges UN to act now on ‘moral test’ of El Fasher siege

August 18, 2025 (PORT SUDAN)  – Sudan’s prime minister on Monday urged the United Nations Security Council to take immediate action to lift the months-long siege on the city of El Fasher in Darfur, calling the escalating humanitarian crisis a “moral test” for the international community.

In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and the Security Council, Prime Minister Kamil Idris said hundreds of thousands of trapped civilians can no longer wait for “procedural discussions or delayed resolutions.”

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have besieged El Fasher, the last army stronghold in the Darfur region, since April 2024, blocking the entry of aid, food, and medicine.

“This is not just a humanitarian crisis; it is a moral test for the United Nations,” Idris wrote. “International law prohibits the use of starvation as a weapon of war.”

He warned that history “will remember whether the United Nations chose silence or solidarity, and whether it allowed an entire city to perish or stood firm to protect the innocent.”

The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution on June 13 demanding the RSF halt the siege, but fighting has continued. The RSF rejected an army-approved proposal for a one-week humanitarian truce in late June.

The blockade has led to a catastrophic decline in living conditions. According to the prime minister’s letter, families are starving, and most basic goods have disappeared. Prices for any remaining commodities have surged, forcing residents to resort to eating animal feed to survive.