El Fasher through different eyes: scenes of life and death in the North Darfur capital

Sudan Media Forum: Joint Editorial Room

Prepared and edited by: Radio Dabanga

I did not recognise his picture… He was floating in his trousers that were tied with a rope around his waist so that they would not fall off, his shirt was like a robe stretched on a wire between two sticks to dry… He was light in his step as he extended his hand towards me from afar, waving peace as the echo of artillery fire resounded towards the Umm Dafso market and south of El Fasher, while in contrast, columns of smoke appeared rising into the sky towards Abu Shouk camp for the displaced, which witnessed widespread destruction, and dozens of deaths and injuries as a result of months of artillery fire by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and finally by air strikes by the Sudanese Air Force.

I raised my right hand waving peace to him, … He said as he walked towards me: “I think you did not recognise me, Ahmed, I am Ibrahim Hamid!”

I was shocked by what I saw! The last time I saw him was seven months ago near the big market in El Fasher in the city centre, at the bus stop, where he was working at the time (as a ticket collector calling at the stop for passengers to load the buses. He is a senior employee with a doctorate degree, and the head of a department in one of the service ministries that has stopped working in the city like other state institutions because of the war. At the end of the day, he receives from the bus driver he works in the amount of 500 pounds per day for eight months.

Horrific scenes

The Grand Market in El Fasher, which has been out of service for months, along with the butcher shop, vegetable market and Umm Dafso market, has been subjected to artillery and drone shelling by the RSF, resulting in deaths and injuries, the exact numbers of which are unknown. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says it has documented the deaths of 782 civilians and the injuries of more than 1,143 since May until December 20, citing evidence based in part on interviews with those fleeing the area.

Dr Ibrahim and Ahmed Mahmoud, a veterinarian who now works as a porter in the city’s mobile markets, survived the fall of a “dana” when they were at the same bus stop a few months ago. It led to the death of two people, the injury of five, the destruction of a car, and caused great damage to a passenger bus that was parked nearby.

Skeletons walking the streets

“Let’s get out of here, Doctor, before another bullet hits us that won’t let us get out of here alive this time” Ahmed said. He added: “But tell me, Doctor, what happened to you? Nothing, Dr Ibrahim said, laughing. My weight was 103 kilos. Now, as you can see, my weight is 61 kilos. I’ve become lighter and I don’t feel tired or sick, and so have I,” Ahmed said. “My weight has become like yours, while my wife has become like a wire and her weight has dropped to 59. It’s the blessing of war.” We laughed and cried together.

One meal and communal kitchens

The severe siege imposed by the RSF on El Fasher since last May has led to a shortage of food supplies, the closure of main markets, high prices, a severe shortage of cash, water and medicines, and a widespread outbreak of malnutrition and anaemia among all age groups, according to statements by doctors and health workers. Nutrition

and health care specialists told Radio Dabanga from El Fasher via the Starlink network, the only network currently communicating with the city’s residents and all Darfur states, that many families in El Fasher eat only one meal a day, while many rely on tekayas, collective kitchens and locally provided charity.

The tekayas and collective kitchens, which were established with the support and funding of charitable people and residents of those neighbourhoods in the diaspora, are spread across a number of the city’s neighbourhoods, and hundreds migrate to them to obtain some food after long waits and even longer lines.

Famine and cash crisis

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report issued on 24 December predicted a famine in El Fasher and other areas until next May. The scale of the disaster was exacerbated by the severe shortage of cash, which forced citizens to resort to other tricks to obtain food, including breaking, exchange, and commission via the Bankak application in exchange for cash. The

suffering of the city’s residents was exacerbated by the cessation of Zamzam market, the most important grain market in El Fasher and the surrounding areas, since the start of the bombing of the camp in early December. The cessation of the flow of grain from Jebel Marra, Dar es Salaam, Tawila and other sources to Zamzam and El Fasher exacerbated the problem of supplying goods to the city, according to traders who spoke to Radio Dabanga.

El Fasher is also suffering from an increase in families headed by women, due to the killing of men, their joining the fighting forces of one group or another, or their leaving the country. While other groups of displaced women and children live in public buildings in El Fasher, such as schools and mosques, in a very difficult humanitarian situation.

16 months without salaries

With the collapse of the daily labour market in El Fasher, income-earning opportunities for the poor, employees and teachers, whose salaries have been suspended since August of last year, have become severely limited, if not non-existent. Dr Ibrahim, a civil service employee, told Radio Dabanga, “The last time we received salaries was 16 months ago, in August 2023, and until now we have not received anything. What we have received is the basic salary, which is only a third of the salary for the months of April, May, June, July, and August. This applies to all workers and employees in the five states of Darfur.”

On the road leading to “Awlad El Reef”, one of the old neighbourhoods in the city of El Fasher, where Dr Ibrahim lives, the echo of the artillery shelling of the RSF was resounding towards the areas south of El Fasher, and other shells were heading towards the Abu Shouk camp for the displaced, and the sound of a warplane was heard in return, passing over the city’s sky, with the sound of a loud explosion and smoke rising east of El Fasher. Passersby were walking in the streets, exchanging greetings and comments, and carrying out their tasks as if nothing had happened. The traces of artillery shelling were clearly visible on the walls and rooms of the houses, especially in the eastern and western neighbourhoods of Awlad El Reef and the Makarka neighbourhood, one of the neighbourhoods affected by the shelling in the city.

On the road leading to “Awlad El Reef”, one of the old neighbourhoods in the city of El Fasher, where Dr Ibrahim lives, the echo of the artillery shelling of the RSF was resounding towards the areas south of El Fasher, and other shells were heading towards the Abu Shouk camp for the displaced, and the sound of a warplane was heard in return, passing over the city’s sky, with the sound of a loud explosion and smoke rising east of El Fasher. Passersby were walking in the streets, exchanging greetings and comments, and carrying out their tasks as if nothing had happened. The traces of artillery shelling were clearly visible on the walls and rooms of the houses, especially in the eastern and western neighbourhoods of Awlad El Reef and the Makarka neighbourhood, one of the neighbourhoods affected by the shelling in the city.

Danat El Hauser and “Your Bank”

This is the sound of a Bankak 40 cannon, evidence… and that is the sound of an H4 howitzer, said Dr Ibrahim while exchanging comments with his veterinarian friend Ahmed about the sounds of the cannons whose shells have been falling on homes and civilian objects every day for months, as they crossed the street together towards his home in the Ouled Rif neighbourhood.

“Yes, that’s right, we have become experts in the sounds of weapons and their directions,” said Dr Ahmed as they approached Dr Ibrahim’s home, where he lives with his wife, five children, and two of his brothers.

The report issued by the Human Sciences Laboratory confirmed, through analysing remote sensing data and open sources, that it was able to locate four heavy artillery pieces consistent with the AH4 155mm howitzer, via satellite imagery. Both El Fasher and Zamzam are within 40 km of AH4s-compatible weapons. The laboratory estimates that these artillery pieces are likely involved in the ongoing bombardment of Zamzam, which has reportedly killed 73 people and injured 376 others as of 13 December 2024.

Wounded people in front of the door

At the door of Dr Ibrahim’s house, whose walls were covered in fractures, holes and engravings, Ibrahim said, pointing to them with his hand: “This is where my brothers Omar and Issam were injured. Dana’s lashes fell near the house 11 days ago. We suffered a lot in treating them. There were no medicines, no hospitals. Accidents are like a dirty, crowded cell. You have to fend for yourself, searching for intravenous solutions and medicines. The war has destroyed everything!”

Bombing the only hospital in El Danat

Late last year, the RSF bombed the Saudi Hospital with three shells. The first shell fell 10 meters in front of the hospital, seriously injuring 16 people and killing two Saudi hospital staff. The second shell fell inside the Saudi Hospital for the third time, hitting the maternity wards, the offices of the medical staff, and vital sites in the hospital. The renewed shelling of the Saudi Hospital last week resulted in the death of one person and the injury of two hospital staff. Citizens resorted to digging trenches inside the hospital and turning them into temporary medical facilities to treat patients. They fortified them with containers and sandbags to turn them into a safe haven for patients and the wounded.

Living in an underground trench

In the middle of the yard of Dr Ibrahim’s house in the Awlad El Reef neighbourhood in El Fasher, there is an open entrance on the ground that looks like an open door… His children, his two brothers, and his wife came running towards the open entrance on the ground after the sound of a loud explosion that resounded in the street a short distance from the house. Abu Kabas… It’s a 120-caliber cannon shell, Ibrahim said… Come quickly to the trench shelter that he built and that can accommodate ten people to protect themselves from the splashes of shells that the RSF randomly drop on houses… In the blink of an eye, everyone was crammed into the trench dug underground.

Continuous escape, but where to?

According to unofficial statistics, more than one million people live in El Fasher. The attacks launched by the RSF on the city, accompanied by artillery shelling and marches on residential neighbourhoods and civilian objects, forced half of its population to flee to villages around El Fasher and neighbouring localities and other states. The Displacement Tracking Matrix revealed the displacement of about 256 families from El Fasher between Wednesday and Friday. The matrix explained that the displacement came against the backdrop of escalating battles in the eastern and southern neighbourhoods of El Fasher, including Abu Shouk and Zamzam camps for the displaced.

The shelling of Zamzam camp by the RSF with artillery since the first week of December caused many from the camp to flee to El Fasher or to the city’s countryside, while others fled to Tawila, Shangil Tobay and Dar El Salam. According to civil society volunteers, some of those who originally fled El Fasher to Zamzam have returned to El Fasher again, while others have moved to Abu Shouk camp, but the camp is also currently being shelled.

This report is published simultaneously on the platforms of media and press institutions and organisations that are members of the Sudan Media Forum

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*The Sudan Media Forum is a coalition of independent media outlets and organisations including:

– Dabanga – Radio / TV / Online

– Sudanese Journalists Syndicate

– Sudan Tribune

– Al-Tayar newspaper

– Aljreeda Newspaper

– Sudan-Bukra Media Org

– Altaghyeer newspaper

– Ayin Network

– Alrakoba.net

– Sudanile.com

– Journalists for Human Rights – JHR – Sudan

– Female Journalists Network-Sudan

– The Democrat Newspaper

– Hala Radio – 96 FM

– Radio (PRO FM) 106.6

– Medameek newspaper

– Darfur 24

– Al-Ayam Center for Cultural Studies and Development

– Teeba Press

– Alalg Center for Press Service

– Sudanese Center for Research, Training, and Development Services

– Article Center for Training and Media Production

– mashaweer-news.com

– Sudans Reporters

– Televzyon Platform

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