Sudan: A glimpse of the “ghost town” of El Fasher
MSF teams describe the city as largely destroyed and emptied, with few civilians remaining.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was granted access to El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, to assess the current situation of the civilians and health facilities. This comes after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized the city last October, following a prolonged siege and atrocities. It was our first visit since halting operations in the city in August 2024 and in nearby Zamzam camp in February 2025.
On Thursday, Jan. 15, our team spent four hours in El Fasher while under the constant supervision of security officials. We saw destroyed areas, largely emptied of the communities that used to live there. The regional capital now looks like a ghost town, with few civilians remaining.
Our visit was too limited to allow us to get more than a glimpse. Yet this glimpse is a grim reminder of the sheer scale of the destruction that took place in the city as many of its residents were wiped out.
We went to health facilities and two displacement sites hosting mostly women, children and older adults. In the health facilities, we reiterated our willingness to support referrals of patients in need of surgery to existing MSF projects with surgical capacity. Although we were unable to carry out a thorough and independent assessment, we did not find massive acute medical needs in the changed city.
What MSF’s visit tells us about El Fasher
Our visit was too limited to allow us to get more than a glimpse. Yet this glimpse is a grim reminder of the sheer scale of the destruction that took place in the city as many of its residents were wiped out. Patients we care for in the nearby town of Tawila have shared stories of mass killings, torture, kidnappings and other violence occurring in the city and along escape routes.
After the RSF takeover of El Fasher in late October, MSF has been relentlessly trying to locate and help survivors in need of assistance across Darfur and at the border in eastern Chad. Our fears are now growing that most of the civilians who were still alive when RSF seized the city were killed or displaced.
MSF’s medical and humanitarian programs in North Darfur currently focus on Tawila, Korma and Gerne, as well as the cities of Nyala, Zalingei, El Geneina and other locations across the broader Darfur region.
