News Center — The city of El-Fasher, which has been under a prolonged siege for several months, has become one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. Following the Rapid Support Forces’ takeover, hundreds of thousands of residents now face horrific conditions, including killings, torture, and repeated abductions.

On Wednesday, November 5, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) condemned the atrocities and mass killings—both indiscriminate and ethnically targeted—that have reached their peak this week in and around El-Fasher. The organization expressed deep concern over the grave danger facing a large portion of the population, especially those prevented by the Rapid Support Forces from reaching the town of Tawila.

According to MSF, after 17 months of siege and continuous attacks, many residents have been forced to flee toward Tawila following each new wave of violence. Meanwhile, El-Fasher still shelters around 260,000 people, according to the United Nations, and those who remain face horrific massacres, torture, and kidnappings for ransom, as well as summary executions without trial.

MSF further reported that large numbers of people—mostly women, children, and the elderly—are suffering from catastrophic levels of malnutrition, with 57% of children under five affected by severe acute malnutrition.

 The international organization noted that since famine was declared in the region over a year ago, the humanitarian crisis has continued to worsen. Residents are suffering from a severe and growing shortage of food and life-saving supplies, forcing many to rely on animal feed as their only means of survival.

The World Health Organization (WHO) strongly condemned the killing of more than 460 patients and their companions, as well as the abduction of six health workers just days ago near the maternity hospital in El-Fasher. The organization stressed that this tragedy comes amid a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis in North Darfur’s El-Fasher, where escalating violence, ongoing siege, famine, and disease continue to claim more civilian lives — including children — amid the near-total collapse of a healthcare system that was already fragile.

Reports indicate that since the beginning of the conflict, 46 health workers have been killed in El-Fasher, including the Director of Primary Health Care at the State Ministry of Health. Another 48 have been injured, while the fate of staff from three non-governmental organizations operating in El-Fasher remains unknown.

According to the organization, more than 260,000 people remain trapped in the city, enduring dire humanitarian conditions marked by an almost total lack of food, clean water, and medical services. The recent escalation of violence has forced nearly 28,000 people to flee — about 26,000 toward rural areas surrounding El-Fasher and nearly 2,000 to the town of Tawila.

The organization expects an additional wave of displacement toward Tawila, which could exceed 100,000 people in the coming days and weeks, adding to the 575,000 previous displaced persons from El-Fasher who had already sought refuge there or in other areas. Women and unaccompanied children make up a large proportion of these displaced populations, facing extremely difficult conditions amid severe shortages of shelter, protection, food, water, and healthcare.

A spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stated that Sudan is facing the world’s largest food crisis, noting that estimates indicate more than 3.2 million children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition, while over 772,000 of them are severely malnourished — conditions requiring urgent treatment to prevent deaths