Shelling, hunger, humiliation: Escaping residents describe siege of Sudan's al-Fashir

Displaced Sudanese children who fled intense fighting in al-Fashir sleep at a displacement camp, as the humanitarian situation deteriorates amid the ongoing conflict between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese army, in Al Dabba, Sudan, September 6, 2025. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

AL-DABBA, Sudan (Reuters) -As the siege by Sudan's Rapid Support Forces tightens around al-Fashir, the few able to pay to escape describe living under constant shelling and negotiating violence at checkpoints to get out of a city where people have resorted to eating animal feed.

Last week, a U.N. fact-finding mission found that the RSF had committed crimes against humanity in al-Fashir, the final holdout of the Sudanese army in the Darfur region of western Sudan.