The United Nations has warned of a rapidly worsening protection crisis in western Sudan as entire communities flee El Fasher, where weeks of escalating violence have forced nearly 100,000 people from their homes. UNHCR says that “tens of thousands of people who fled the Sudanese city of El Fasher remain missing”, heightening fears for civilians amid mounting reports of rape, killings, and other grave abuses carried out by armed groups.

UNHCR’s Head of Sub Office in Port Sudan, Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet, speaking to journalists in Geneva, said that only a small fraction of those who escaped have reached organized reception points such as Tawila. According to her, while close to 100,000 people have been uprooted since the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) overran the city, roughly 10,000 have been registered in arrival sites.

Parlevliet noted that large numbers of displaced people have effectively vanished along the routes out of the city. “A large number of people on the move are stuck somewhere, unable to continue further because of the danger,” she said, describing families recounting “unimaginable horrors” during their flight from El Fasher. She added that “their journeys have become longer and more dangerous, as people increasingly avoid familiar routes to escape armed checkpoints,” warning: “We are concerned that further escalation of the conflict in Kordofan will lead to more displacement.”

Accounts gathered by UNHCR indicate widespread sexual violence, abductions, forced recruitment, and ransom demands targeting those attempting to flee. “Parents are searching for missing children, many traumatized due to conflict and the dangerous journey to reach safety. Unable to pay ransoms, families have lost young male relatives to arrests or forced recruitment into armed groups,” Parlevliet said.

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Sudan Bloodbath

In separate remarks at the Human Rights Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk painted an equally dire picture. He said the siege of El Fasher had driven people to survive on animal feed and peanut shells. Turk condemned mass killings, ethnically targeted executions, and atrocities that he said were likely ongoing. He told Member States that bloodstains on the ground in El Fasher are visible from space. “We warned that the fall of the city to the Rapid Support Forces would result in a bloodbath,” he said, calling for urgent global action to stop the violence. “All those involved in this conflict should know: we are watching you, and justice must prevail.”

Thousands of displaced people have undertaken journeys lasting up to 15 days, often with little food or water, attempting to bypass RSF checkpoints. The town of Ad Dabbah in Northern State, already hosting tens of thousands from earlier waves of displacement, has now received at least 37,000 new arrivals. UNHCR also cited reports that armed groups are forcibly pushing some escapees back toward El Fasher, where local sources say many of the elderly, the injured, and people with disabilities remain trapped.

The humanitarian situation has deteriorated sharply across North Darfur and into neighbouring North Kordofan, where the conflict has spread in recent weeks. Fighting has shifted southward from El Fasher into Kordofan, an area that separates RSF-controlled territory in western Sudan from Sudanese army positions further east.

UN agencies warn that Sudan now faces a displacement emergency of unprecedented scale, with more than 12 million people uprooted nationwide. Humanitarian access remains heavily restricted, and UNHCR says it has received only 35 percent of the funding required for its operations in Sudan and the region.

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