El-Fashir Under Siege: A city grapples with war, hunger, and displacement
Sudanese Media Forum: Joint News Room
Prepared and Edited by: Radio Dabanga
January 8, 2025 (EL FASHER) – I didn’t recognize his face. He was swimming in his trousers, cinched with a rope at the waist to keep them from falling. His shirt hung like a robe, drying on a line strung between two posts. He moved lightly… He spoke, extending his hand towards me from afar, waving in greeting as artillery fire echoes resonated towards the “Um Dafso” market and the south of El Fasher. In contrast, columns of smoke billowed into the sky in the direction of the Abu Shouk displacement camp, which had witnessed widespread destruction and dozens of deaths and injuries due to months of artillery shelling by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and finally by airstrikes from the Sudanese army’s air force.
I raised my right hand, waving back in greeting… He said, approaching me, “I think you didn’t recognize me, Ahmed. I’m Ibrahim Hamid!”
I was stunned by the horror of what I saw! The last time I saw him was seven months ago near the main market in El Fasher, in the city centre, at the bus stop. He was working as a conductor, calling out to passengers to fill the buses. He, a high-ranking employee with a PhD and the head of a department in one of the city’s now-defunct service ministries due to the war, was earning 500 pounds a day for eight months from the bus driver he worked for.
Horrific scenes
The main market in El Fasher, which has been out of service for months, along with the butcher’s market, the vegetable market, and the “Um Dafso” market, witnessed artillery shelling and drone attacks by the RSF, resulting in deaths and injuries with no accurate statistics available. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that it had documented the deaths of 782 civilians and injuries to more than 1,143 between May and December 20, noting that the evidence is based in part on interviews with those who fled the region.
Dr. Ibrahim, along with Ahmed Mahmoud, a veterinarian who now works as a porter in the city’s mobile markets, narrowly escaped a mortar shell that landed near the same bus stop months ago. The shell killed two people, injured five, destroyed a vehicle, and caused significant damage to a parked passenger bus.
Skeletons walking the streets
“Let’s get out of here, Doctor before another shell comes, and we don’t make it out alive this time,” Ahmed said… He added, “But tell me, Doctor, what happened to you?” “Nothing,” Dr. Ibrahim replied with a laugh. “My weight was 103 kilos… Now, as you can see, it’s 61 kilos. I’ve become light, and I don’t feel tired or sick.” “Me too,” Ahmed said. “My weight is now like yours, while my wife has become like a ‘wire,’ her weight dropping to 59… This is the blessing of war.” We laughed and cried together.
One meal and collective kitchens
The severe siege imposed by the RSF on El Fasher has led to a shortage of food supplies, the closure of major markets, soaring prices, severe cash shortages, water and medicine shortages, and widespread malnutrition and anaemia among all age groups, according to doctors and health workers.
Nutrition and healthcare specialists told Radio Dabanga from El Fasher via Starlink, the only network currently available for communication with residents of the city and all Darfur states, that many families in El Fasher eat only one meal a day, while many rely on communal kitchens and locally provided charity.
Communal kitchens, established with the support and funding of philanthropists and diaspora members from those neighbourhoods, are spread across several city areas. Hundreds migrate to them to get some food after long waits and even longer queues.
Famine and the cash crisis
A December 24 report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) predicts famine in El Fasher and other areas of Sudan until May. The crisis is exacerbated by severe cash shortages, forcing people to resort to desperate measures to obtain food, including bartering and using remittance apps like Bankak to access cash, often at a high commission.
The suffering of the city’s residents has been compounded by the closure of the Zamzam market, the most important grain market in El Fasher and the surrounding areas since the shelling of the camp began in early December. According to traders who spoke to Radio Dabanga, the disruption of grain flow from Jebel Marra, Dar es Salaam, Tawila, and other sources to Zamzam and El Fasher has further exacerbated the problem of supplying goods to the city.
El Fasher is also experiencing an increase in female-headed households due to men being killed, joining fighting forces, or leaving the country. Meanwhile, other groups of displaced women and children live in public buildings in El Fasher, such as schools and mosques, in challenging humanitarian conditions.
16 months without salaries
With the collapse of the daily labour market in El Fasher, income-earning opportunities for the poor, employees, and teachers, whose salaries have been suspended since August of last year, have become extremely limited, if not non-existent. Dr Ibrahim, a civil servant, told Radio Dabanga, “The last time we received salaries was 16 months ago, in August 2023. We haven’t received anything since. We only received the basic salary, which is one-third of the total salary, for April, May, June, July, and August. This applies to all workers and employees in the five states of Darfur.”
On the Road to Awlad Al-Reef
On the road leading to “Awlad Al-Reef,” one of the oldest neighbourhoods in El Fasher where Dr. Ibrahim resides, the echoes of RSF artillery fire could be heard towards areas south of El Fasher, with other shells heading towards the Abu Shouk displacement camp. Meanwhile, the sound of a warplane was heard overhead, followed by a loud explosion and smoke rising east of El Fasher. People in the streets went about their business, exchanging greetings and comments as if nothing had happened. The effects of the artillery shelling were clearly visible on the walls and rooms of houses, especially in the eastern and western neighbourhoods of Awlad Al-Reef and the Mkerk neighbourhood, one of the areas affected by the shelling in the city.
Howitzer Shells and “Bankak”
“That’s the sound of a Bankak (40) cannon… And that’s the sound of an H4 howitzer,” Dr. Ibrahim said, exchanging comments with his veterinarian friend Ahmed about the sounds of the cannons, whose shells have been falling on homes and civilian objects daily for months, as they crossed the street towards his house in the Awlad Al-Reef neighbourhood. “Yes, that’s right. We’ve become experts in the sounds of weapons and their directions,” said Ahmed as they approached Dr. Ibrahim’s house, where he lives with his wife, five children, and two brothers. The report issued by the Humanitarian Research Lab, based on the analysis of remote sensing data and open sources, confirmed that it was able to locate four heavy artillery pieces consistent with a 155mm AH4 howitzer through satellite imagery. Both El Fasher and Zamzam are within the 40 km range of the weapons consistent with “AH4s.” The lab estimates that these artillery pieces are likely involved in the ongoing shelling of Zamzam, which reportedly resulted in 73 deaths and 376 injuries as of December 13, 2024.
Injuries in Front of the House
At the door of Dr Ibrahim’s house, which showed cracks, holes, and marks on its walls, Ibrahim pointed with his hand and said, “Here, my brothers Omer and Issam were injured by shrapnel from a shell that fell near the house 11 days ago. We struggled a lot to treat them. No medicine, no hospitals. The emergency room is like a dirty, crowded cell. You have to manage on your own, searching for intravenous solutions and medicine. The war has destroyed everything!”
The Pharmaceutical Situation
According to pharmacists in El Fasher who spoke to Radio Dabanga, medicine supplies are no longer available in Abu Shouk and El Fasher health facilities, nor are they available to international NGOs. Doctors say that what is available in the city’s pharmacies is expensive and out of reach for most patients. One doctor confirmed that this is hindering the treatment of those injured and disabled by the shelling, whose numbers are increasing day by day.
Only one hospital still operates in El Fasher today, the “Saudi” Maternity Hospital, which turned into a general hospital after the rest of the hospitals stopped functioning. A doctor, who asked not to be named, told Radio Dabanga, “The hospital is now operating at only about 50% of its capacity, is repeatedly shelled, and is not considered a safe place to seek treatment.” He added, “I examine about 100 patients daily, and we also suffer from a severe shortage of health workers.”
The Only Hospital Shelled
At the end of last year, the RSF shelled the Saudi Hospital with three shells. The first shell fell ten meters in front of the hospital, seriously injuring 16 people and killing two hospital staff members. The second shell fell inside the Saudi Hospital for the third time, hitting the maternity wards, the offices of medical staff, and vital areas of the hospital. The renewed shelling of the Saudi Hospital last week resulted in the death of one person and the injury of two hospital staff members. Citizens have resorted to digging trenches inside the hospital and converting them into temporary medical facilities to treat patients. They have fortified them with containers and sandbags to turn them into a safe haven for patients and the wounded.
Living in a Trench Underground
In the middle of the courtyard of Dr Ibrahim’s house in the Awlad Al-Reef neighbourhood of El Fasher, an opening in the ground appears, resembling an open door… His children, brothers, and wife came running towards the opening after a loud explosion echoed in the street, a short distance from the house. “Abu Kabas! Abu Kabas!” It’s a 120mm mortar shell,” Ibrahim said. “Quick, to the trench (shelter)!” He had built it to accommodate ten people to protect them from the shrapnel of the shells that the RSF randomly drops on houses. In the blink of an eye, everyone crammed into the underground trench.
My Grave is My Trench!
According to Dr. Ibrahim, the 120mm and 80mm mortars are locally called “Abu Kabas” because they fall suddenly on their victims without giving any warning with a sound or whistle, unlike other cannons, such as the one locally known as Bankak (40) and the howitzer, whose shells are accompanied by a whistling sound.
“How long will we remain like this?” Ahmed asked Ibrahim as they hid in the trench. “Isn’t it time for you and your children to leave this city?” “I agree. My wife and children can leave,” Ibrahim said. “But I can’t leave. As you know, I have nothing and no other safe place to go. This is my city. I was born here, and I will die here. This trench is my grave. I live in it, and I will die in it.”
Continuous Displacement, But to Where?
According to unofficial statistics, more than one million people live in El Fasher. The RSF attacks on the city, accompanied by artillery shelling and drone strikes on residential neighbourhoods and civilian objects, have forced half of its population to flee to villages around El Fasher, neighbouring localities, and other states. The Displacement Tracking Matrix revealed the displacement of about 256 families from El Fasher between Wednesday and Friday. The matrix clarified that the displacement came against the backdrop of escalating battles in the eastern and southern neighbourhoods of El Fasher, including the Abu Shouk and Zamzam displacement camps.
The RSF’s artillery shelling of the Zamzam camp since the first week of December has caused many to flee the camp, either to El Fasher or to the city’s countryside, while others fled to Tawila, Shingil Tobay, and Dar es Salaam. According to civil society volunteers, some of those who originally fled from El Fasher to Zamzam have returned to El Fasher, while others have moved to the Abu Shouk camp, but it too is now under attack. Darfur.
This report is published simultaneously on the platforms of media institutions, organizations, and newspapers that are members of the Sudanese Media Forum. #SilenceKills #NoTimeToWasteForSudan #StandWithSudan #SudanMediaForum