‘A donkey cart out of El Fasher costs more than a new car’: how 500 days under siege is tearing the city apart

<p>The ongoing attacks on North Darfur’s capital has left its people facing starvation, blockade and bombardment, with scant hope of relief</p><p><strong>Special report:</strong> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/sep/24/siege-sudan-city-el-fasher-rsf"><strong>‘We will never, ever escape’: inside the ever-tightening siege of the Sudanese city of El Fashe</strong>r</a></p><p>For 17 months, since May 2024, El Fasher, North Darfur’s capital, has been trapped in one of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/sep/24/siege-sudan-city-el-fasher-rsf">the longest urban sieges of modern warfare</a>, a slow war of attrition that recalls the destruction of Stalingrad and the starvation of Leningrad, combining both cruelties in a single city.</p><p>The siege, progressively <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/08/1165731">tightened by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)</a>, has transformed the city. Trenches cut through neighbourhoods. Civilians move block by block in search of safety, while self-defence groups fight alongside entrenched garrisons.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/sep/27/el-fasher-darfur-sudan-rsf-donkey-cart-costs-more-than-a-car">Continue reading...</a>