UN aid chief heads to Darfur, calls El Fasher ‘darker hell’

November 13, 2025 (PORT SUDAN) – The United Nations’ top humanitarian official, Tom Fletcher, is traveling towards Sudan’s Darfur region, warning that the city of El Fasher has “descended into an even darker hell,” a UN spokesperson said Wednesday.

Fletcher, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, is in Sudan to assess the “immense suffering” and identify solutions to the deepening crisis.

He is expected to meet families who have fled the recent violence in El Fasher, a city Fletcher described as “already the scene of catastrophic levels of human suffering,” UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters. Dujarric did not indicate if the UN official would be able to visit the North Darfur capital itself.

The aid chief will also meet with humanitarian workers who are attempting to deliver aid despite rampant insecurity, access constraints, and severe funding shortages.

The visit to Darfur follows high-level meetings Fletcher held in Port Sudan on Tuesday with General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, President of the Transitional Sovereign Council.

Discussions focused on improving humanitarian access across the country. According to Dujarric, Fletcher “conveyed our appreciation for the Government’s stated commitment to facilitate the delivery of essential aid wherever it is needed.”

While in Port Sudan, Fletcher also met with Sudanese Foreign Minister Mohieldin Salim Ahmed Ibrahim and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty. They discussed “urgent steps to reach people in need across Sudan, from Darfur to the Kordofan.”

Fletcher recently allocated $20 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to scale up life-saving aid in Tawila, Darfur, and Kordofan.