Traumatised civilians left in Sudan's El-Fasher after its capture by paramilitary RSF forces are living without water or sanitation in a city haunted by famine, says UN aid coordinator Denise Brown after making the agency's first visit in almost two years.
El-Fasher, the capital of the North Darfur State, fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in October after more than 500 days of siege.
For the first time in nearly two years, a small UN humanitarian team was able to make a short visit last Friday.
The capture of the city was reportedly accompanied by mass atrocities, including massacres, torture and sexual violence. Satellite pictures reviewed by French news agency AFP show what appear to be mass graves.
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Brown described the city as a "crime scene", but said investigations would be carried out by human rights experts while her office focuses on restoring aid to the survivors.
"We weren't able to see any of the detainees, and we believe there are detainees," she said in an interview with AFP.
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'Ghost of its former self'
From a humanitarian point of view, she said, El-Fasher remains Sudan's "epicentre of human suffering" and the city - which once held more than a million people - is still facing a famine.
"El-Fasher is a ghost of its former self," Brown said.
"We don't have enough information yet to conclude how many people remain there, but we know large parts of the city are destroyed. The people who remain, their homes have been destroyed."
"These people are living in very precarious situations," warned Brown, a Canadian diplomat and the United Nations' humanitarian coordinator in Sudan.
"Some of them in abandoned buildings. Some of them... in very rudimentary conditions, plastic sheeting, no sanitation, no water. So these are very undignified, unsafe conditions for people."
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'Nothing good'
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the regular army and its former allies the RSF that has triggered a humanitarian catastrophe.
Brown said that the team "negotiated hard with the RSF" to obtain access, and managed to look around and visit a hard-pressed hospital and some abandoned UN premises - but only for a few hours.
Their movements were also limited by fears of unexploded ordnance and mines left behind from nearly two years of fighting.
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The Saudi hospital was still standing, with some medical staff present, but has run out of supplies.
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"There was one small market operating, mostly with produce that comes from surrounding areas, so tomatoes, onions, potatoes," she said.
"Very small quantities, very small bags, which tells you that people can't afford to buy more."
"There is a declared famine in El-Fasher. We've been blocked from going in. So there's nothing good about what's happened in El-Fasher.
The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people, driven 11 million from their homes and has caused what the UN has declared "the world's worst humanitarian disaster".
(with AFP)
