Rare footage emerging from El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, has laid bare the devastating reality for civilians trapped under a year-long siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The city’s 500,000 residents are enduring extreme hunger, a collapsing healthcare system, and relentless violence as aid routes remain blocked.

The blockade has choked off food, fuel, medicine, and other essential goods. Families have resorted to eating animal fodder, such as peanut shells, to survive. According to humanitarian agencies, nearly 40 percent of children under five are acutely malnourished, with 11 percent in severe condition. Medical aid, including therapeutic food for starving children, has been repeatedly intercepted by RSF forces.

Healthcare infrastructure is in ruins. The Saudi Maternal Teaching Hospital in El-Fasher was destroyed in a January drone strike, killing at least 70 people. Most hospitals in the region have shut down, and outbreaks of cholera, measles, and other preventable diseases are spreading rapidly. North Darfur has recorded 191 cholera deaths and almost 4,000 cases, while a vaccination campaign in Khartoum struggles to contain the epidemic.

Violence against civilians has escalated. In April, RSF assaults on the Zamzam refugee camp may have killed more than 1,500 people in just three days, with another attack on Abu Shouk camp leaving at least 40 dead. Shelling in El-Fasher earlier this year claimed the lives of 57 civilians, including children.

Aid operations have ground to a halt after 15 humanitarian workers were killed in June while attempting to deliver relief supplies to the city. The United Nations Security Council has condemned RSF’s actions, warning that its attempts to establish a rival government in Darfur threaten Sudan’s sovereignty and worsen the humanitarian disaster.

Since the conflict between Sudan’s army and the RSF erupted in April 2023, tens of thousands have been killed and more than 12 million people displaced, creating the world’s largest displacement crisis. Darfur, and El-Fasher in particular, is now facing one of the most severe hunger emergencies globally, with the UN warning that without immediate access for aid, thousands more children could die in the coming weeks.

The voices from El-Fasher are urgent and heartbreaking. “Our children are dying,” one mother said through tears in the newly surfaced footage. “We have nothing left to give them—no food, no medicine, no hope.”