By Brian Kiprono - Reporter
Sudan, 14 November 2025 - Tens of thousands of people who fled the Sudanese city of El Fasher are missing, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has warned, raising deep concern for their safety as violence continues in Darfur.
El Fasher, once the last major city held by the Sudanese army in Darfur, fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) late last month after more than 500 days under siege. According to UN officials, the siege left people so desperate that many survived on peanut shells, animal feed, and whatever they could find.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said mass killings, ethnic executions and other grave abuses have been reported since the city was taken. He added that some bloodstains on the streets are visible from satellite images.
UNHCR estimates that nearly 100,000 people have fled El Fasher and nearby villages in just two weeks, but only around 10,000 have been officially recorded in places like Tawila.
“A significant number of people are stranded somewhere,” said Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet, UNHCR’s Head of Sub Office in Port Sudan.
“Families are searching for missing children. Many are traumatised. Some have lost relatives to forced recruitment or arrests because they could not pay ransoms.”
People escaping El Fasher have described scenes of terror, civilians shot in the streets, drone strikes, rape, and families hiding for days without food. Some have walked for up to 15 days, taking unfamiliar and dangerous routes to avoid armed checkpoints. A few have travelled nearly 1,000 kilometres to Ad Dabbah in Northern State, where at least 37,000 displaced people are now sheltering.
But even as people flee, armed groups are reportedly forcing others back to El Fasher, where thousands of elderly, disabled and injured people remain trapped with no safe way out.
Sudan is now the world’s largest displacement crisis, with more than 12 million people uprooted inside and outside the country. And the danger does not end after people flee. The UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) has warned that unexploded weapons litter many cities and towns, especially in Khartoum, South Kordofan, West Kordofan, and Blue Nile. Millions of square kilometres remain contaminated with landmines and explosive remnants of war.
Displaced families, often unfamiliar with the terrain, are especially at risk. Civilian casualties from these hidden explosives continue to rise, and experts warn that the reported cases represent only a fraction of the true toll.
Conflict is now shifting toward Kordofan, and aid agencies fear even more displacement. Humanitarian organisations are pleading for unrestricted access to reach the thousands still trapped, missing, or in urgent need of help.
The UN has urged immediate international action, insisting that the world cannot ignore what is happening in Darfur.
“We are watching,” Türk said.
“Justice must prevail.”
