Families forced into displacement by famine in Sudan

Omdurman, Sudan – When Marasi Alfadil arrived in Omdurman with her children, there was almost nothing waiting for them. The family eventually found a half-finished building inside a compound to live in. There are no proper walls, no services and little food. But for Marasi, it is still safer than the city she fled. Recommended Stories list of 3 items end of list Six months ago, she escaped el-Fasher in North Darfur, just days before fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group took full control after an 18-month siege of the western city, which at the time was controlled by the group’s opponents in Sudan’s three-year civil war , the Sudanese armed forces (SAF). Thousands of people were killed during the RSF takeover, which a United Nations investigation found bore the “hallmarks of genocide” . “The siege made life hard,” she told Al Jazeera. “Goods could not come in. Anyone who tried to bring food was detained or killed.” Hundreds of thousands of people still remain in el-Fasher, where food shortages and violence continue under the RSF’s control. This has created a hunger crisis so severe that the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification hunger-monitoring system declared a famine in November. Similar conditions have also been reported in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan State, while at least 20 other areas across the contested western Sudanese region of Darfur and the central region of Kordofan are at risk of famine. …