The World Food Programme (WFP) has said it is “shocked and alarmed” that its premises in southwestern Sudan have been hit by repeated shelling from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as the paramilitary group wages a brutal civil war, now in its third year, with the Sudanese army.
“Humanitarian staff, assets, operations and supplies should never be a target. This must stop now”, the United Nations body said on X on Thursday.
#Sudan pic.twitter.com/c4aXtS9zhY
— WFP Media (@WFP_Media) May 29, 2025
El-Fasher is the last major city held by the Sudanese army in the Darfur region. It has witnessed intense fighting between the army and RSF since May 2024, despite international warnings about the risks of violence in a city that serves as a key humanitarian hub for the five Darfur states.
For more than a year, the RSF has sought to wrest control of el-Fasher, located more than 800km (500 miles) southwest of the capital, Khartoum, from the army, launching regular attacks on the city and two major famine-hit camps for displaced people on its outskirts.
Adding to humanitarian woes on the ground, the Health Ministry in Khartoum state on Thursday reported 942 new cholera infections and 25 deaths the previous day, following 1,177 cases and 45 deaths the day before.
Aid workers say the scale of the cholera outbreak is deteriorating due to the near-total collapse of health services, with about 90 percent of hospitals in key war zones no longer operational.
Since August 2024, Sudan has reported more than 65,000 suspected cholera cases and at least 1,700 deaths across 12 of its 18 states. Khartoum alone has seen 7,700 cases and 185 deaths, including more than 1,000 infections in children under five, as it contends with more than two years of fighting between the army and the RSF.
Sudan’s army-backed government in Khartoum state announced earlier this month that all relief initiatives in the state must register with the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), a government body that oversees humanitarian operations in Sudan.
Aid workers and activists are fearful these regulations will lead to a crackdown on local relief volunteers, exacerbating the catastrophic hunger crisis affecting 25 million people across the country.
The HAC was given expanded powers to register, monitor and, critics argue, crack down on local and Western aid groups by former leader Omar al-Bashir in 2006, according to aid groups, local relief volunteers and experts.
The army-backed government announced last week that it had dislodged RSF fighters from their last bases in Khartoum state, two months after retaking the heart of the capital from the paramilitaries.
The city, nonetheless, remains devastated with health and sanitation infrastructure barely functioning.
The RSF has been battling the SAF for control of Sudan since April 2023. The civil war has killed more than 20,000 people, uprooted 15 million and created what the UN considers the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
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