Updated: 30 December 2025 18:28:57
Little life in Sudan’s Al-Fashir after RSF siezure: Aid workers
Moatinoon - Agencies
International aid staff who accessed Sudan‘s Al-Fashir for the first time since its takeover by a paramilitary force found the city largely deserted, with a few people sheltering in buildings or under plastic sheets, a senior UN official said on Monday.
More than 100 000 are estimated to have fled Al-Fashir since late October after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces took control there following an 18-month siege that plunged the city into famine.
Survivors reported ethnically-motivated mass killings and widespread detentions during and after the takeover. Many people remain unaccounted for in Al-Fashir and surrounding areas.
In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Denise Brown, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, described Al-Fashir as a “crime scene”.
“The town was not teeming with people. There were very few people that they were able to see,” she said, describing a visit to Al-Fashir by UN staff on Friday that lasted several hours.
UN requirements of safe passage and free movement took weeks to negotiate, despite RSF’s attempts to portray the city as back to normal soon after its takeover.
Brown said villages around the city appeared to be deserted.
The attack on Al-Fashir was one of the most violent episodes of a war that has raged since April 2023 between the RSF and the Sudanese army. It allowed the RSF to consolidate control over the Darfur region in Sudan’s west, a push that continued in the northwest of the state this month.
Brown said Friday’s visit was aimed at assessing whether al-Fashir could be accessed safely as the UN looks into what basic supplies can go in. “But to be honest, we’re still very concerned about those who are injured, who we didn’t see, those who may be detained,” she said.
Later visits will look at water and sanitation, she said.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced on Saturday the arrival of an assessment mission in El Fasher, North Darfur State, western Sudan.
In a statement, OCHA said that the mission arrived in El Fasher following extensive humanitarian negotiations, marking its first mission after months of intense fighting, siege, and widespread violations against civilians and humanitarian workers.
