Sudanese Seek Refuge Underground in Besieged Darfur City

Desperate for safety from bombardment of Sudan's besieged city of El-Fasher, Darfur, residents have built makeshift bunkers. Muammar Ibrahim / AFP
Desperate for safety from bombardment of Sudan's besieged city of El-Fasher, Darfur, residents have built makeshift bunkers. Muammar Ibrahim / AFP
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Sudanese Seek Refuge Underground in Besieged Darfur City

Desperate for safety from bombardment of Sudan's besieged city of El-Fasher, Darfur, residents have built makeshift bunkers. Muammar Ibrahim / AFP
Desperate for safety from bombardment of Sudan's besieged city of El-Fasher, Darfur, residents have built makeshift bunkers. Muammar Ibrahim / AFP

Beneath the broken earth of the besieged Sudanese city of El-Fasher in the western region of Darfur, Nafisa Malik clutches her five children close.
As shells rain down, the 45-year-old mother tries to shield them in a cramped hole barely big enough to crouch in.
"Time slows down here," Malik said, from her home near El-Fasher's Hajer Gadou market.
"We sit in the darkness, listening, trying to guess when it's over," she told AFP by phone.
For almost two years the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudan's army have waged a war that has killed tens of thousands, AFP said.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called it a "crisis of staggering scale and brutality".
El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, is the only major city in Darfur still under army control, making it a strategic prize.
The RSF has tried for months to seize it.
Malik's crude shelter, held up by splintered wooden planks and scraps of rusted metal, is one of thousands in the war-battered city, according to residents.
The army regained much of the capital Khartoum this year, but the RSF has intensified its attacks on El-Fasher.
Desperate for safety from artillery and drone strikes, residents have built makeshift bunkers.
Some are hurriedly excavated foxholes, others are more solid and reinforced with sandbags.
Mohammed Ibrahim, 54, once believed hiding under beds would be enough, "until houses were hit".
"We lost neighbors," he said by phone. "The children were terrified."
Determined to protect his family, Ibrahim dug a hole in his yard. He covered it with sacks of soil with only a narrow entrance.
Doctors underground
Despite the RSF's siege cutting off supply lines, the army and an allied coalition of armed groups known as the Joint Forces still hold most of the city.
Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab, which uses satellite and other data to track the conflict, has identified "clusters of damage".
It details destruction from munitions and fires including near the airport, market and in the city's east and south.
The researchers reported bombardment of "residential structures", and said its findings are consistent with Sudanese army air strikes as well as RSF artillery and ground attacks.
Staff at the Saudi Hospital, one of the last functioning medical facilities in the city, carved out an underground shelter last October.
"We use it as an operating room during the strikes, lit only by our phones," one doctor told AFP, requesting anonymity for his safety.
Every explosion sends tremors through the shelter walls, shaking surgical instruments and rattling nerves.
El-Fasher was historically the seat of the Darfur sultanate and has long been a center of power in Darfur.
Now, it is all that stands between total RSF control of Darfur, whose gold resources provide the paramilitaries with vital revenue, according to the United States Treasury Department.
The African Union warned last week that Sudan risks partition.
"The army is well entrenched in El-Fasher, making it exceedingly difficult for the RSF to capture the city," said Marc Lavergne, a Sudan expert at France's University of Tours.
Crucial to the army's war effort in El-Fasher is its support from the Zaghawa ethnic group.
'Existential threat'
Forces from prominent Zaghawa figures, Darfur Governor Minni Minnawi and Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim, have joined the city's defense after being neutral at the war's beginning.
"The Zhagawa see the fall of El-Fasher as an existential threat," said Sudanese political analyst Kholood Khair.
"They are concerned that the RSF would commit reprisal attacks against them for breaking their neutrality -- if they capture the city," she told AFP.
But as the RSF tightens its grip, the army and its allies face a dilemma: hold the city at immense human cost or risk ceding a stronghold that Khair said could shift the war's balance.
"Holding the city depletes resources," she said. "But losing it would be catastrophic."
A UN-backed assessment declared famine in three displacement camps around El-Fasher. Famine is expected to spread to five more areas, including El-Fasher itself, by May.
Aid is practically nonexistent.
Remaining humanitarian agencies have suspended operations as the RSF attempts to break through, attacking camps and villages around El-Fasher.
"Bringing goods in has become nearly impossible," shop owner Ahmed Suleiman said. "Even if you take the risk, you have to pay bribes at checkpoints, which drives up prices."
Leni Kinzli from the World Food Programme warned of dire consequences.
"If aid continues to be cut off, the fallout will be catastrophic", she said.



Syria Joins a Donor Conference for the First Time in a Crucial Phase for Its New Leaders

EU High Representative and Vice-President for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas (C), Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (C-R), Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi (C-L) and representatives pose for a family picture on the sidelines of the Brussels IX Conference “Standing with Syria: meeting the needs for a successful transition”, at the Europa Building in Brussels on March 17, 2025. (AFP)
EU High Representative and Vice-President for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas (C), Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (C-R), Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi (C-L) and representatives pose for a family picture on the sidelines of the Brussels IX Conference “Standing with Syria: meeting the needs for a successful transition”, at the Europa Building in Brussels on March 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Syria Joins a Donor Conference for the First Time in a Crucial Phase for Its New Leaders

EU High Representative and Vice-President for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas (C), Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (C-R), Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi (C-L) and representatives pose for a family picture on the sidelines of the Brussels IX Conference “Standing with Syria: meeting the needs for a successful transition”, at the Europa Building in Brussels on March 17, 2025. (AFP)
EU High Representative and Vice-President for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas (C), Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (C-R), Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi (C-L) and representatives pose for a family picture on the sidelines of the Brussels IX Conference “Standing with Syria: meeting the needs for a successful transition”, at the Europa Building in Brussels on March 17, 2025. (AFP)

International donors gathered on Monday in a show of support for Syria, hoping to encourage the new leaders of the conflict-ravaged country toward a peaceful political transition following the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in December.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani attended the conference — the ninth of its kind — in a first for a top official from Damascus.

But the United States, one of Syria’s top donors, wasn’t expected to offer assistance as the Trump administration is reviewing all foreign aid. It contributed almost $1.2 billion to Syria and the region last year.

Ministers and representatives from Western partners, Syria’s regional neighbors, other Arab countries and UN agencies also attended the one-day meeting in Brussels, organized in haste by the European Union amid change sweeping the country.

Opening the meeting, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU was increasing its pledge to Syrians in the country and the region to almost 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) for 2025 and 2026.

“We call on all of you who are here today to do the same, if possible, because at this critical time, the people of Syria need us more than ever,” von der Leyen said.

Syria's new leaders are trying to consolidate control over territory that was divided into de facto mini-states during nearly 14 years of civil war, and to rebuild the economy and infrastructure. The United Nations has estimated that it would cost at least $250 billion to rebuild Syria, while experts say that could reach at least $400 billion.

At the same time, Western governments are cutting back on aid spending, in part to use in defense budgets.

“We will give more, but we cannot fill the gap left by the US,” EU Crisis Management Commissioner Hadja Lahbib told reporters. "We will need to share the burden.”

Security concerns are also making donors hesitate. Earlier this month, an ambush on a Syrian security patrol by gunmen loyal to Assad triggered clashes. Some factions allied with the new government launched sectarian revenge attacks — primarily targeting Assad’s Alawite minority sect — that monitoring groups say killed hundreds of civilians over several days.

The EU said that it will only support “a peaceful and inclusive transition, away from malign foreign interference, which guarantees the rights of all Syrians without distinction of any kind.”

The 27-nation bloc has begun to ease energy, transport and financial sector sanctions to encourage the new authorities, but many other Western sanctions remain in place. The EU can reintroduce sanctions if things don’t go to the liking of Western backers.

Syria's foreign minister said that lifting the measures is no longer just a government demand but "a humanitarian and moral necessity.”

"We cannot talk about economic recovery and humanitarian development in Syria while restrictions continue to prevent even the arrival of medical equipment and spare parts to repair damaged hospitals and essential service facilities,” he said.

Syria's economy, infrastructure and institutions are in tatters. As a failed state, it could become another haven for extremists.

Amy Pope, director-general of the International Organization for Migration, urged donors to seize this opportunity to encourage the interim government to move in the right direction.

“It’s critical that countries take advantage of the moment we’re in,” Pope told The Associated Press.

“Of course, we all want to see an inclusive Syria,” she said. “We want to make sure there’s accountability for human rights violations. But the answer is to engage more, not to engage less.”

Syrians have only a few hours of electricity each day. Water supplies are unreliable and often unsafe. Unemployment runs to 80% or 90%. Destruction is widespread.

Many government employees and experts needed to rebuild fled after the 2011 peaceful anti-regime protests were violently quelled by Assad, leading to the conflict.

The UN refugee agency said that last year around 7 million people were displaced in Syria. More than 4.7 million refugees are registered in neighboring countries, most in Türkiye, Lebanon and Jordan.

The German government said that it would pledge around 300 million euros ($326 million) to help deal with the fallout from Syria’s civil war. More than half will be used to help people in Syria, with other funding supporting Syrians and communities elsewhere.

Monday's conference was also focused on meeting Syria’s economic needs. Infrastructure, health and education must be scaled up. Jobs and cash for work programs are needed so that Syrians can start to make a living.