Mass atrocities are underway in Sudan's North Darfur region, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned in a report, urging the warring parties to spare civilians and respect their obligations under international humanitarian law and immediately stop ethnic violence.
The report, “Besieged, Attacked, Starved,” depicts a desperate situation for civilians in and around El Fasher that requires immediate attention and response. “People are not only caught in indiscriminate heavy fighting between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and their respective allies—but also actively targeted by the RSF and its allies, notably on the basis of their ethnicity,” said Michel Olivier Lacharité, MSF head of emergencies.
The report exposes systematic patterns of violence that includes looting, mass killings, sexual violence, abductions, starvation, and attacks against markets, health facilities, and other civilian infrastructure.
“As patients and communities tell their stories to our teams and asked us to speak out—while their suffering is hardly on the international agenda—we felt compelled to document these patterns of relentless violence that have been crushing countless lives amid general indifference and inaction over the past year," said Mathilde Simon, MSF humanitarian affairs advisor.
The report details how the RSF and their allies conducted a large-scale ground offensive in April on Zamzam displacement camp, outside of El Fasher, causing an estimated 400,000 people to flee in less than three weeks under appalling conditions.
A large portion of the camp population fled to El Fasher, where they remained trapped—out of reach of humanitarian aid and exposed to attacks and further mass violence. Tens of thousands more escaped to Tawila, about 37 miles away, and to camps across the Chadian border, where hundreds of survivors of the violence received care from MSF teams.
"In light of the ethnically motivated mass atrocities committed against the Masalit in West Darfur back in June 2023, and of the massacres perpetrated in Zamzam camp in North Darfur, we fear such a scenario will be repeated in El Fasher,” said Simon. “This onslaught of violence must stop.”
Since May 2024, the RSF and their allies have besieged El Fasher, Zamzam camp, and other surrounding localities, cutting communities off from food, water, and medical care. This has contributed to the spread of famine and debilitated the humanitarian response.
In May 2024 alone, health facilities supported by MSF in El Fasher endured at least seven incidents of shelling, bombing, or shooting by all warring parties. Indiscriminate airstrikes conducted by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) had devastating consequences.
“The SAF bombed our neighborhood by mistake, then came to apologize,” said one woman affected. “SAF planes sometimes bombed civilian areas without any RSF [presence]. I saw it in different places.”
