EL FASHER, Sudan (AP) — In the besieged Sudanese city of El Fasher, families have been reduced to eating leaves and animal feed. For 500 days, an estimated 260,000 people have been trapped as paramilitary fighters from the Rapid Support Forces tighten their hold, choking off food, medicine and hope.

“There is death everywhere,” one resident told The Washington Post. “Families inside the city said they have been reduced to eating leaves and animal feed.”

‘Uninhabitable’

The Guardian calls El Fasher “uninhabitable,” describing a city pushed “to the edge of survival.” What was once a bustling Darfuri capital has become a graveyard of shuttered markets, collapsed hospitals, and empty prayer halls.

Across Sudan, a year and a half of brutal war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF has left the country in ruins. Tens of thousands have been killed and more than 11 million people displaced. The numbers are largest displacement crisis in the world, according to the United Nations. Amnesty International says civilians face “rampant violations of human rights and humanitarian law,” as warring sides block aid to millions struggling to survive “without food or water.”

Human Rights Watch reports that both the RSF and allied militias have committed widespread atrocities, including the massacre of ethnic Massalit communities in West Darfur — violence that bears the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing. “These forces killed hundreds of civilians … looted, assaulted, and unlawfully detained scores,” the group said in a statement.

Toll on Small Christian Population in Sudan

Christian advocacy groups say the violence has also taken a heavy toll on Sudan’s small Christian population. More than 165 churches have been attacked, occupied, or forced to close since fighting erupted in April 2023, according to reports monitored by Fox News and Open Doors. Church leaders say congregations are scattered. Pastors are in hiding, and prayers have gone quiet in homes for fear of arrest.

The United Nations warns that famine could soon claim more lives than bullets. Both sides of the conflict have been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war. In many areas, humanitarian convoys are blocked or looted, and warehouses emptied. “People in Sudan are facing a humanitarian catastrophe,” Amnesty International said.

Beyond the numbers lies a story of faith and endurance. In makeshift shelters and ruins of churches, survivors whisper prayers for deliverance — sometimes in silence. Or else, they will draw sound unwanted attention.

The world’s attention, drawn elsewhere, rarely lingers on Sudan. Yet, in the words of one exhausted aid worker quoted by The Guardian, “It is a war that the world has chosen not to see — and people are dying for that silence.”

(Photo Courtesy: BBC News)

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Dan Mitchell

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