Famine has taken hold in two cities in Sudan’s Darfur region, after a siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces which has been accused of mass killings.
A UN-backed hunger monitor had previously confirmed famine in camps for displaced people, the first such categorization anywhere globally in years. But the new declaration of famine conditions in el-Fasher and Kadugli vastly expands the number of people at risk of dying from hunger.
The RSF’s recent capture of el-Fasher — an offensive reportedly supported by the UAE — is believed to have already led to mass killings of Darfur’s non-Arab population, a continuation of a genocide started by the militias the RSF sprang from.