Fikra for Studies and Development (FikraSD) Statement on the Catastrophic Siege of El Fasher

Urgent Appeal to Prevent Imminent Genocide in El Fasher, North Darfur

Date: April 8, 2025

Fikra for Studies and Development (FikraSD) issues this urgent and grave warning regarding the rapidly deteriorating situation in El Fasher, North Darfur. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the forces of its allies in Ta’asis coalition are poised to unleash a bloodbath on April 10, 2025, aiming to seize the city before the war’s second anniversary on April 15, to announce their parallel government. El fasher, a refuge for two millions civilian, including the approximately 1 million souls trapped in the famine-stricken Zamzam IDPs’ camp, stands on the precipice of a humanitarian catastrophe engineered by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), their allied militias within the Ta’asis coalition, and enabled by their external sponsors particularly the UAE government.

As international and regional actors prepare to convene in London on April 15th, we must speak with unvarnished truth: El Fasher is facing an imminent, calculated assault designed to inflict mass suffering and potentially replicate the genocidal atrocities witnessed in El Geneina. The RSF’s brutal siege has already plunged Zamzam camp into IPC Phase 5 Famine, where children are dying daily from starvation, 34% suffer acute malnutrition, and healthcare has utterly collapsed. This is not merely a consequence of war; it is a deliberate strategy of starvation and extermination.

The RSF, emboldened by impunity and UAE external support, systematically strangles El Fasher and its surrounding camps. Just last week, they actively blocked UN humanitarian aid convoys of passing to the city and shot down a government plane intended to airdrop aid to the trapped civilians. RSF continued to shell civilian areas and displacement camps like Zamzam and Abo Shok camps, target essential infrastructure, and attack aid workers, forcing organizations like MSF and WFP to withdraw critical life-saving operations. Their flimsy pretext of targeting SAF-allied forces cannot mask the reality: they are waging war on a civilian population, particularly targeting non-Arab groups like the Zaghawa, Fur and displaced Masalit echoing the horrific ethnic cleansing campaigns previously unleashed in Darfur.

This is not a legitimate military objective; it is a prelude to potential mass murder on a scale that could dwarf the horrors of El Geneina, where up to 15,000 civilians were slaughtered at the hands of the RSF. The fall of El Fasher could trigger the displacement of another 800,000 people and lead to tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of deaths through violence and starvation. The world cannot stand idle as this horror unfolds. The international community needs to Act Now or Bear the Shame of Being a Silent Witness to Another Genocide.

Therefore, FikraSD issues the following urgent demands:

To the Participants of the London Conference (April 15th), the UN Security Council, its member states, and Regional Powers: Your resolutions and statements have proven utterly ineffective. UNSC resolutions—2736, 2676, and countless hollow statements—have been reduced to ash under RSF artillery. Your failure to enforce them has emboldened this militia and its backers. Rhetoric will not stop bullets or feed starving population. We demand you move beyond condemnations and diplomatic niceties to impose immediate, crippling pressure on the RSF, its Ta’asis allies, and crucially, its sponsors, particularly the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), whose documented support fuels this war machine. You are feasting in London with the sponsor of Genocide while claiming to search for peace in Sudan. You should demand an immediate end to the siege and halt the planned assault on El Fasher. Enforce existing arms embargoes and hold violators accountable. Failure to act decisively now constitutes complicity in the atrocities unfolding.

To the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC): We urge the ICRC to uphold its humanitarian mandate with the full urgency that the catastrophic situation in El Fasher demands. Under the Geneva Conventions—particularly Common Article 3 and Articles 23 and 59 of the Fourth Geneva Convention—ICRC is entrusted with the neutral, impartial, and independent delivery of humanitarian assistance to civilians in armed conflict. The besieged civilian population of El Fasher, for over a year now, is in desperate need of immediate access to food, water, and medical care. We call on the ICRC to intensify its efforts, overcome the obstacles imposed by the ongoing siege, and deploy all available means -including possible aid air-dropping to ensure the swift delivery of life-saving aid. Your presence, protection, and action are not only essential—they are a legal and moral imperative. ICRC is not powerless in the face of obstruction. We call upon you to formally invoke the ICRC’s right to request access and assistance from other High Contracting Parties to ensure aid reaches besieged civilians if local authorities fail or obstruct delivery.

To the International Community: Do not avert your gaze. We are witnessing the unmistakable precursors to another genocide in this ongoing war. The lessons of Rwanda, Srebrenica, and El Geneina itself are stark. Indifference is not an option. Sanctions, diplomatic isolation, accountability mechanisms, and robust support for civilian protection efforts must be deployed NOW.

We also call upon the United Nations, its specialized agencies, and international humanitarian and human rights organizations to urgently deploy and support satellite and aerial surveillance mechanisms to monitor and document the situation in El Fasher. These technologies must be used to systematically record attacks on civilians, displacement camps, humanitarian convoys, and vital infrastructure. Such documentation is critical not only for real-time monitoring and advocacy, but also as admissible evidence for future accountability processes, including international investigations and prosecutions for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The world failed to prevent genocide in Darfur before. It failed to stop the slaughter in El Geneina, Khartoum, El Gezira and many other places when RSF took control of them. The world cannot claim ignorance now. Action must be taken before El Fasher becomes another blood-stained chapter in Sudan’s tragic war. We demand you act before it is too late. Stop the RSF by confronting their sponsor. History will judge your response.

Fikra for Studies and Development (FikraSD)