Bullets or hunger: El Fasher’s displaced remain trapped

16 September 2025

Every day, the displaced residents of Abu Shouk Camp are compelled to make an extremely risky decision: whether to remain within the camp or flee. Either decision is rife with danger. 

Mohamed Bakhait supports the conflict-affected as a volunteer in the youth-driven emergency response rooms network in the Abu Shouk internally-displacement camp outside of El Fasher. He is determined to stay put to help the multitude of civilians within the camp as the cases of shelling and camp raids increase. But he also wonders on a daily basis whether he should take the risk and leave –fully aware that attempting to leave the camp is similarly fraught with danger. Situated on the northern edge of territory controlled by Sudan’s army, the camp is a fiercely contested area between the warring parties, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the national army and allied forces. While the intense shelling continues, the displaced civilian population of 260,000 remain trapped amidst the fighting.  

The Abu Shouk IDP Camp and the El Fasher area could quite possibly be the most dangerous location currently in Sudan’s ongoing conflict. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have laid siege to the capital city of North Darfur State, El Fasher, and surrounding areas for over 500 days, killing over 300 people, the UN reported. The RSF are now only 13 kilometres away from the army and allied forces’ last remaining military base, local residents told Ayin. Determined to control the city and, by extension, their total control of the vast Darfur area, the RSF have pursued a relentless campaign of shelling and raiding the area since last month, Bakhait told Ayin. 

Between 30 August – 10 September the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab identified at least 50 munition impacts or destroyed structures inside Abu Shouk Camp, including 22 in the camp’s main market. Using satellite footage, the Lab also identified 190 fresh burial mounds over the past six weeks in a civilian cemetery  

The latest report from the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab included evidence of more than 50 munition impacts or destroyed structures inside the Abu Shouk camp between 30 August to 10 September, including at least 22 in the camp’s main market. Using satellite imagery, the Lab also identified over a six week period 190 new burial mounds in a civilian cemetery.

Remember 11 August

“On the morning of Monday, 11 August, we woke to gunfire. The attack came from both the south and the north,” Bakhait recalls. “Four-wheel-drive vehicles loaded with soldiers and weapons drove straight into the camp and heavy shooting poured in from the north and east as they advanced; the eastern side of the camp was hit the hardest.” While hard to estimate, Mohamed believes 40 people died and 35 were injured in the attack -some directly shot, others hit by stray bullets. 

But the wounded often die from their injuries due to a lack of treatment, says Hekima Isaaq, a mother and community activist. “There is no medicine. No IV fluids, no bandages, no painkillers inside El Fasher. Wounded people are dying simply because ambulances have no fuel [to transport them].”

In other cases, Abu Shouk residents are disappearing. “Six people are still missing, and we don’t know if they are alive or dead,” Bakhait added. Remaining within Abu Shouk Camp has proved extremely precarious for most residents, Bakhait says, since the RSF enter the camp sporadically. “During their entry, they arrest citizens, some of whom are executed.” The rate of missing citizens has become so rampant that residents set up a center for victims of enforced disappearance within the camp. 

Trapped and hungry 

Opportunities to leave are shrinking by the day. Since May, the RSF have used excavators to build an earthen wall encircling the city. According to satellite research by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, between 27 August and 10 September, the wall encircling the city extended the wall by 7km, bringing its total length to at least 38km and leaving only two gaps totalling around 13km for residents to enter and leave the camp. “In short, the city is almost fully encircled by the earthen walls and RSF appears to be rapidly closing these gaps while bombarding Abu Shouk IDP Camp,” the report said. 

While most remain trapped, many residents still attempt to leave the camp due to the dearth of food and water. Many families survived through the Abu Shouk Emergency Response Room communal kitchens, Mohamed explains, but funding has dried up and humanitarian aid is not reaching the camp due to the insecurity, he said.  

Attempts to provide aid are often hampered by the warring parties. On 20 August, a drone struck a World Food Programme (WFP) convoy of 16 aid trucks in Melit town, just north of El Fasher. The attack destroyed three trucks carrying food assistance but all drivers are safe and accounted for. Neither the RSF or army claimed responsibility for the attack.

“We are forced to eat animal fodder, known as “ambaz” and crop residue, mixing it with water and giving it to children as their only meal.”

Water is another crisis. “We rely on solar panels and fuel to pump it, but the panels are too few and the fuel is too expensive and a single barrel now costs 4 million Sudanese pounds (roughly US$ 1,125). Sellers can’t afford it, and neither can we. People here can’t even buy drinking water.”

Fleeing with fear

Despite the immense challenges, Abu Shouk residents remain since they lack means to leave. “To leave Abu Shouk Camp for Tawila costs around 600,000 Sudanese pounds (US $175), a price no one here can pay,” says former Abu Shouk resident, Hekima Isaaq. 

Fearing for the security of her four children, Hekima made the dangerous and costly journey to Tawila. “Leaving El Fasher for Tawila was one of the hardest experiences of my life as a mother of four children, the eldest only ten years old, the roads are unsafe and the RSF loot, kill, and arrest people.” Their decision to leave was not easy – leaving El Fasher was rife with dangers, but so was remaining within the camp where shelling takes place on a daily basis.

Along with the risks of travel come the costs. “Our displacement cost us more than one and a half million Sudanese pounds (roughly $400), some of it paid to the Rapid Support Forces just to allow us to leave,” she explains. “They control the main road between El Fasher and Tawila, and families like mine are forced to pay heavy crossing fees.”

Along the way, donkey carts charge huge amounts to carry people part of the journey, but eventually, most must walk the rest of the road on foot. “I saw families who had been walking for weeks, without food or water, collapsing from exhaustion,” she added.

Tawila overflowing 

Tawila is a town in North Darfur, Sudan, about 60 km west of El Fasher. Tawila has become a desperate refuge for nearly 379,000 people fleeing the rampant destruction and siege of the El Fasher area, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council. Aid organisations warn the town is on the brink of full-scale collapse, as medical and water services are overwhelmed.

Najla Al-Haj, a medical volunteer in the emergency response rooms in Tawila, told Ayin that she had watched Tawila fill with people running for their lives from the siege and destruction in El-Fasher and surrounding areas since April 2025. “Every day, exhausted families arrive at our emergency room, mothers carrying weak children, the elderly barely able to walk, people with wounds and hunger in their eyes. Most of them are women, children, and those with disabilities. They come on foot after days of fleeing, with nothing but the clothes they wear,” she said.

The emergency response rooms have set up new camps to assist with shelter but it is never enough. “The aid is gone, the shelters are only straw and dirt, and still, they keep coming,” she added. “I see children cry from hunger, mothers skipping meals so their little ones can eat scraps, and sick people lying on the ground because there are no beds left,” Najla said.

With the advent of the rainy season, cholera is spreading and clean water is difficult to find. “As a medical worker, I try to help each person I can, but the need is far greater than what we can give. It breaks my heart every single day.”