What’s happening in Sudan? UN warns of grave humanitarian crisis following El Fasher’s fall

The city of El Fasher, in North Darfur, has become the epicentre of one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters after falling to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) from the national Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). The takeover follows an 18-month siege and has led to mass killings, widespread starvation and mass displacement, according to the United Nations. The conflict began in April 2023, when the SAF and the RSF — once allies — turned on each other in a struggle for control of Sudan’s military and political future. The RSF, which evolved from the Janjaweed militias implicated in earlier Darfur atrocities, laid siege to El Fasher and gradually tightened control over the Darfur region’s urban centres. After the RSF took the city, the UN’s relief coordinator Tom Fletche