Deep concerns persist for the tens of thousands of people believed to be trapped in the town of El Fasher, located in the western Darfur region of Sudan. However, United Nations aid agencies believe they may soon gain access to the embattled city, where famine has been confirmed. Meanwhile, in South Kordofan State, drone strikes in and around the state capital, Kadugli, and the town of Dilling, point to a rapidly deteriorating security situation.
While a growing number of civilian deaths are being reported across Sudan’s Kordofan region, including those from shelling, drone strikes, and executions, displaced families urgently need shelter, essential items, health services, and water, sanitation, and hygiene assistance, catastrophic conditions continue in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State.
“The little that's known at the moment about the current conditions in El Fasher is indeed beyond horrific,” said Ross Smith, Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response for the World Food Programme (WFP), speaking to journalists in Geneva on Friday.
“We know that there's anywhere between 70 and 100,000 people potentially remaining trapped inside the city itself.”
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 100,000 people have been displaced from the city and surrounding villages since late October. Interviews with newly displaced families confirm that some civilians are still trapped in El Fasher as many cannot leave due to exorbitant transportation costs, ransom demands, and the absence of safe passage.
At the end of October, paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters, who have been at war with the Sudanese army since April 2023, overran El Fasher after a 500-day siege. Conditions in El Fasher are catastrophic, with famine confirmed and families unable to afford the limited food available.
The UN human rights office has warned that people have been reduced to eating peanut shells and animal feed. Satellite footage has revealed bloodstains from mass killings of civilians and executions based on ethnicity.
Humanitarian agencies insist that securing access for aid teams remains an urgent priority amid network blackouts that have largely cut off communication with those remaining inside El Fasher. Testimonies from survivors “describe the city as a crime scene with mass killings, with burnt bodies, with abandoned markets”, Smith explained.
In one major incident on October 28, RSF fighters reportedly killed more than 460 patients and their companions when they attacked the Saudi Hospital in El Fasher after the paramilitary group took over the city.
“We are calling for and we've continued to call for unimpeded access into El Fasher to urgently respond to those that remain trapped in the city,” the WFP official stressed.
“I understand from discussions yesterday that we have agreement in principle with the Rapid Support Forces for a set of minimum conditions to enter the city; so, we anticipate to be able to do that very soon, to do some initial assessments and reconnaissance. After more than a year and a half under siege, the essentials for survival have been completely obliterated.”
Smith noted that those who have managed to flee El Fasher have risked their lives along roads “littered with mines” and unexploded ordnance.
Tawila: More than 650,000 people in urgent need of aid
Many have found shelter in Tawila, a small desert town until recently, which has become a massive displacement settlement for over 650,000 people — equivalent in size to Luxembourg. Other displaced people have sought refuge in Ad Dabbah, located in Northern State.
UN aid teams and partners continue to push for access to all those in need; while WFP-supported convoys are “en route to Tawila now, with enough for 700,000 people for the next month”, the WFP official said.
“These are families that have endured famine for many months on end and mass atrocities and are now living in overcrowded conditions with very limited support. There's not enough shelter for people, many are staying in very makeshift structures: grass, straw structures, et cetera. Cholera and disease outbreak is widespread.”
Most families in Tawila fled the Zamzam camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in April 2023, when the RSF brutally attacked Sudan’s largest IDP camp, which was hosting around 500,000 people at the time. However, people continue to flee El Fasher and arrive in Tawila.
Those arriving have moved multiple times in search of assistance and have described robbery, looting, and gunfire along the route. While the UN and its partners are scaling up humanitarian aid, the needs far exceed the available resources.
Thousands escaping violence in Darfur and Kordofan also continue to arrive in Northern State.
Meanwhile, in South Darfur State, about 30 civilians were reportedly killed and many more were injured — including women and children — in a drone strike on Monday in Katila, a town located about 150 kilometers southwest of Nyala. The strike, which hit a location under the control of the RSF, underscores the devastating impact of the intensifying aerial attacks on civilians.
This incident occurred as the toll of escalating violence on civilians in the Darfur and Kordofan regions continues to grow rapidly, particularly through an increase in drone strikes. Further civilian casualties were reported in a separate strike on the town of Kutum in North Darfur State on the same day.
Kordofan region: Atrocities and displacement continue
Aid agencies in Sudan are sounding the alarm as civilians in the Kordofan region face a mounting humanitarian crisis marked by an escalation of armed conflict. Civilians are caught in the crossfire and are at risk of extreme violence, displacement, confinement, and starvation.
Amid the intensified conflict of the past six weeks, a growing number of civilian deaths are being reported in multiple areas of the states of South, North and West Kordofan, including from shelling, drone strikes, and executions.
Following the RSF’s capture of the besieged city of El Fasher in Darfur in late October, intense fighting in Sudan has shifted eastward. Civilians in the Kordofan region are now facing sharply heightened risks of atrocities.
On December 4, at least 116 people — including 63 children — were reportedly killed when RSF-operated drones struck a kindergarten and hospital in Kalogi, South Kordofan. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this death toll includes casualties from the initial strike on the kindergarten and the subsequent attacks on the hospital during the evacuation of patients.
Other reported incidents across the region include attacks on schools, hospitals, IDP sites, markets, humanitarian personnel, and supplies. While the Famine Review Committee (FRC) has confirmed famine in the capital of South Kordofan, Kadugli, people in Dilling, also in South Kordofan, are suffering from similar conditions, and famine there is highly likely.
Drone strikes in and around Kadugli and Dilling point to a rapidly worsening security situation. On Tuesday, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North reportedly urged civilians to evacuate Kadugli amid reports of increased military mobilization, raising fears of an imminent confrontation.
“Preventing the devastation seen in El Fasher from repeating in Kadugli must be a priority,” WFP’s Smith said.
“With frontlines now concentrated in Kordofan, each clash forces more families to flee, compounding humanitarian needs at a time when resources are already stretched thin.”
WFP has managed to send a convoy to Kadugli in October and has two more ready to move once permissions are secured.
On Friday, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) issued a worrying update indicating that the security situation in the Kordofan region has further deteriorated. After a week of intense clashes, the RSF reportedly seized a Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) base in Babanusa in West Kordofan State.
More drone strikes in Heglig, West Kordofan, have further compounded risks to civilians following the town’s capture by the RSF on Monday. Local sources in Babanusa also report that armed groups detained some 100 people returning from North Kordofan State, demanding ransom, and their whereabouts remain unknown.
Meanwhile, in South Kordofan, “civilians remain trapped in besieged cities such as Kadugli and Dilling, and as women, children, and the elderly find ways to escape, men and youth are often left behind due to specific high risks they face along flight routes such as detention by armed groups for perceived affiliation with parties to the conflict”, UNHCR said.
The latest data indicates that more than 40,000 people have been displaced from North Kordofan since mid-November.
“UNHCR, through partners on the ground, is responding to the urgent needs of those displaced, but access remains challenging, and resources are critically low,” the UN Refugee Agency said.
The world's largest humanitarian crisis
The situation in Sudan is not only the world's largest humanitarian crisis, but also one of the most severe. The ongoing conflict between the country's two armed factions, the SAF and the RSF, has driven unprecedented levels of displacement, hunger, violence, and suffering.
Due to war, acute food insecurity and malnutrition, disease outbreaks, and worsening climate shocks, more than 33 million people in Sudan will require humanitarian assistance in 2026.
According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, over 19 million people are facing critical levels of food insecurity, and approximately 375,000 are experiencing catastrophic conditions.
The FRC reports that famines are currently occurring in El Fasher and Kadugli, two towns largely cut off by conflict from commercial supplies and humanitarian assistance where famine thresholds for food consumption, acute malnutrition, and mortality have been surpassed.
The FRC's latest report warns of the imminent risk of famine in an additional 20 areas of Sudan and states that conditions in the besieged town of Dilling are similar to those in Kadugli. However, the IPC cannot assess this area due to restricted humanitarian access and ongoing hostilities.
Fighting erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) when a transition to civilian rule collapsed. This breakdown stemmed from the overthrow of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir four years earlier. The ensuing heavy conflict has devastated communities, displaced millions, and turned an already dire humanitarian crisis into a catastrophe.
Sudan, a nation rich in gold and oil, which are the main drivers of the war and external interference, has become the site of the world's largest humanitarian, hunger, and displacement crises. Out of a population of 47 million, approximately 15 million people have been displaced, including over 10 million internally displaced people.
On Thursday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) urged the international community once again to step up support so that life-saving assistance can reach those in urgent need across Sudan.
On Friday, UN Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres condemned once again all attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. He demanded that all parties abide by their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, across all areas of active conflict in Sudan.
As the 1,000-day mark of this devastating war approaches, Guterres reiterated his call for all states with influence over the parties to take immediate action, use their leverage, and compel an immediate halt to the fighting and the flow of arms that are fueling the conflict.
On Saturday, the Secretary-General strongly condemned the drone attacks that targeted the United Nations peacekeeping logistics base in Kadugli that same day. The attacks resulted in six fatalities and eight injuries, all of whom were members of the Bangladeshi peacekeeping contingent serving in the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).