The humanitarian situation in El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, has deteriorated sharply amid severe food shortages, residents and aid workers said. This has prompted activists to call for emergency airdrops to save a population facing starvation.

El Fasher has been under a tightening siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2024. The RSF began ground attacks on the city in May 2024 using heavy weapons including artillery, drones and missiles, killing hundreds of civilians and displacing nearly one million people, according to humanitarian groups and local accounts.

Mohamed Khamis Douda, a spokesperson for the vast Zamzam camp housing displaced people near El Fasher, said all markets there had shut.

He told Sudan Tribune that shortages of basic goods and residents’ inability to afford those still available forced the closures. Community kitchens known as takaya and Red Cross distribution points providing meals to thousands have also stopped operating due to the lack of supplies, Douda said.

Basic goods like salt, soap and flour are unavailable, while bakeries and grain mills have ceased operations, Douda added.

Severe fuel shortages have also crippled water wells, with the price of a barrel of water soaring to between 15,000 and 20,000 Sudanese pounds (SDG), he said.

An airdrop of five tonnes of food last week by regional and federal authorities was welcome but insufficient for the camp, which shelters over a million people, Douda said.

He urged international and local aid organisations and authorities to establish an air bridge for food and medicine immediately “to preserve what remains of the population.”

Zamzam camp, southwest of El Fasher, is one of Darfur’s largest displacement sites but faces frequent RSF attacks that worsen the humanitarian crisis, residents said.

In El Fasher city itself, all markets including the northern Naivasha market have closed due to the extreme scarcity of food, trader Mohammed Suleiman Hamed told Sudan Tribune.

Prices for scarce items have rocketed, Hamed said: a pound (about 450 grammes) of salt or sugar costs 7,000 SDG; soap costs over 6,000 SDG a bar; powdered milk is 35,000 SDG a kilogramme; and lentils 9,000 SDG a kilogramme. Four small onions cost 5,000 SDG, while rice and flour were unavailable.

“If this situation continues for more than two weeks, thousands… will die of starvation,” Hamed warned, urging authorities and international bodies to organise an airlift.

Residents had relied on a western supply route via Tawila after the RSF siege cut northern and eastern access. But the RSF recently captured this route too, blocking convoys and displacing villagers, local sources said.

A southern route via Khazzan Jadeed in East Darfur state was also cut after the RSF seized control there, further isolating the city, residents reported.

Local officials and residents accuse the RSF of deliberately using siege and starvation as weapons in its campaign to capture the army’s 6th Infantry Division headquarters in El Fasher.