Sudanese fleeing from the fighting between the country's military and paramilitary forces have described their harrowing experiences after escaping from a city under siege for a year-and-a-half.

The Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group fighting Sudanese troops, have captured el-Fasher after besieging it for 18 months.

Thousands fleeing el-Fasher have been trickling into towns near the city, including Tawila, Melit and Tawisha, in recent days.

Aid groups worry about the fate of tens of thousands more who are either trapped in the city or have disappeared as they tried to flee.

Sudanese arriving in Tawila have recounted running out of food during the RSF's siege and scrounging for animal fodder to eat.

In a makeshift camp in the town, Samiya Ibrahim, who managed to flee el-Fasher said she does not know if her husband is alive or dead.

"The Rapid Support Forces have beaten and humiliated us, they took all that we had and left us with nothing," she said.

Many of the people who arrived to Tawila have lost their loved ones amid heavy shelling on the city, including Habib Allah Yakoub who was hit by a bullet while trying to collect water.

The war has been tearing apart Sudan since April 2023.

More than 40,000 people have been killed, according to figures kept by the United Nations, which described the war in March as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

But aid groups say the true death toll could be many times higher.

The fighting has driven more than 14 million people from their homes and fuelled disease outbreaks.

Two regions are enduring a famine that is at risk of spreading to other areas of the sprawling northeastern African country, a global hunger monitoring group said Monday.

Famine is happening in el-Fasher and the town of Kadugli, in the southern South Kordofan province, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said in a new report.

It is also threatening 20 other areas in Darfur and central Sudan's Kordofan region, where fighting has intensified in recent months, according to the IPC, the leading international authority on hunger crises.

Tawila, Melit and Tawisha, are at risk of famine, according to the IPC.