Will under-RSF-siege El-Fasher become the next Gaza?

Since April 2024, the city of El-Fasher, capital of North Darfur State, has endured a brutal siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). For more than 500 days, nearly 300,000 civilians have been trapped, while over 780,000 people have been forcibly displaced.

Access to food, water and healthcare has been almost entirely cut off. Malnutrition among children is rising to alarming levels, and families have been forced to survive on “Elumbaz”—a byproduct of cottonseed and peanuts normally used as livestock feed.

El-Fasher remains the last major government-held stronghold in North Darfur, and RSF attacks have devastated the Abu Shouk refugee camp, indiscriminately targeting marketplaces, infrastructure and civilians through drone strikes and artillery fire.

Trapped in camps

According to official United Nations reports, 300,000 unarmed civilians have been cut off from the outside world for more than a year, including 130,000 children in Abu Shouk and Zamzam camps.

The World Food Programme has been unable to deliver aid since early 2024, and as of March 2025, 38% of children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition.

The consequences are dire. Between April 2023 and July 2025, nearly 782,000 people fled El-Fasher, with the Tawila region receiving three-quarters of them. Yet more than 180,000 civilians remain trapped in Zamzam camp, facing the threat of massacres if they attempt to leave. RSF fighters have even recorded and circulated their atrocities on social media, underscoring the sheer impunity of their violence.

The humanitarian toll is devastating. Thirty-five hospitals and six schools have been destroyed or rendered unusable. Blood banks, laboratories, and clinics are no longer functioning due to systematic RSF bombardment and shortages of critical supplies. Education and healthcare have collapsed entirely. If the siege continues, famine among children is inevitable.

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