Local security conflict

The United Nations has confirmed famine conditions in two besieged Sudanese cities as the country’s civil war enters its third year, with international organizations scrambling to respond to what experts are calling the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Death toll estimates have reached 400,000 since fighting erupted in April 2023, while more than 11 million people have been displaced in what has become the largest displacement crisis globally.
The Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Programme, and UNICEF jointly announced that famine has taken hold in El Fasher in North Darfur and Kadugli in South Kordofan, where more than 260,000 civilians remain trapped under siege conditions. The confirmation marks a devastating milestone in a conflict that has systematically denied humanitarian access, with 30 million Sudanese requiring immediate assistance and aid blockades crippling relief operations.
El Fasher, once the last government stronghold in Darfur, fell to the RSF militia on October 27 after an 18-month siege. Within hours, RSF fighters launched what local organizations and Human Rights Watch describe as a systematic massacre targeting unarmed civilians.
Medical networks operating in Sudan reported more than 1,500 deaths in El Fasher during the first days following the RSF takeover, with witnesses describing house-to-house raids, summary executions, and widespread sexual violence against women and girls. Videos circulating showed militants executing civilians at point-blank range. The Sudan Doctors Network documented that victims included women, children, and elderly residents who had endured months of bombardment and food shortages.
The massacre has drawn comparisons to the Darfur genocide of 2003-2005, which killed an estimated 300,000 people and led to war crimes charges against Sudanese leaders. United Nations genocide prevention experts have warned about ethnic cleansing targeting non-Arab populations, particularly the Masalit people, who have faced repeated atrocities throughout the current conflict. In January, the US State Department formally determined that the RSF and allied militias were committing genocide in Sudan.
Satellite imagery analyzed by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab has provided visual evidence of mass killings, detecting what researchers believe to be human remains and ground discoloration consistent with mass graves. The documentation comes as humanitarian organizations struggle to access affected areas and verify casualty figures amid ongoing fighting and deliberate obstruction of aid convoys.
The famine declaration represents the culmination of a hunger crisis that has been building since the war began. Global acute malnutrition rates in El Fasher range from 38 to 75 percent, with screening data showing that three out of four children in some zones are severely malnourished. In Kadugli, malnutrition is rampant as markets collapse and food prices soar beyond the reach of desperate families.
Nearly catastrophic hunger engulfs 400,000 people in besieged cities, with children and pregnant women particularly vulnerable. The World Food Programme estimates that 730,000 children across Sudan are acutely malnourished. Health facilities are overwhelmed by severe malnutrition-related complications.