El-Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur region, has been mostly destroyed and depopulated since Rapid Support Forces fighters seized the city after months of siege, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Wednesday.
In a statement published on its website, the medical aid group said it was recently granted limited access to el-Fasher to assess the situation of civilians and health facilities, marking its first visit to the city since it suspended operations there in August 2024.
MSF said its team spent four hours in the city on Jan. 15 under constant supervision by security officials, describing vast areas of destruction and neighborhoods largely abandoned.
"The city now resembles a ghost town," it said, adding that only a small number of civilians appeared to have remained or returned after the RSF seized control last October.
MSF teams went to two displacement sites hosting mostly women, children and the elderly. In health facilities, they encountered around 20 male patients suffering from old injuries and reiterated their readiness to support referrals for patients in need of surgery to MSF projects with surgical capacity elsewhere.
Although the visit did not allow for a full and independent assessment, MSF said it did not observe massive acute medical needs across the city, noting that it stood in stark contrast to El Fasher's former status as a regional capital.
The organization said the visit served as a grim reminder of the scale of destruction in el-Fasher, warning that much of the civilian population appears to have been killed or displaced.
MSF said its findings echoed accounts of mass killings, torture, kidnappings and other violence in el-Fasher and along escape routes, as reported by patients treated in recent months in Tawila, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) away.
Following the RSF takeover of el-Fasher in late October, MSF said it has been working to locate and assist survivors in Darfur and along the border with eastern Chad, adding that concerns continue to grow about the fate of civilians who were still alive when the city fell.
Since April 15, 2023, the Sudanese army and the RSF have been locked in a war that regional and international mediations have failed to end. The conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced millions.
