Many people remain missing as camps and towns around El Fasher are also overwhelmed.
As violence and killings continue in El Fasher in North Darfur, with leading generals showing no intention of ending the civil war, millions of people in war-torn Sudan, especially in the west, remain in dire need of humanitarian assistance.
International aid agencies on Sunday called on the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) to facilitate greater aid entry as a mediator’s roadmap has so far failed to lead to a ceasefire.
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A week after militias seized El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, after an 18-month siege and starvation campaign, the situation remains catastrophic.
Tens of thousands of civilians are still believed to be trapped by the RSF in the last major city in the western region of Darfur, and thousands more are missing after fleeing El Fasher.
Only a small number of those who fled El Fasher on foot made it to Taouira, about 50 kilometers away.
An official at a France-based aid agency told Al Jazeera from Tawira that the number of people who have flocked to the town in recent days has increased by only a few hundred.
“This is a very low number considering the number of people stranded in El Fasher. We continue to hear feedback that people are stranded on the road or in other villages, which unfortunately remain inaccessible for safety reasons,” said Solidarites International Sudan Country Director Caroline Bouvard.
Bouvard said there had been a “total blackout” in terms of information coming out of El Fasher after the RSF takeover, with aid agencies receiving information from surrounding areas where up to 15,000 people are believed to be stranded.
“Support is strongly needed with various parties to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches these people, or at least that trucks can be sent to bring them back to Tawira.”
Many of those who managed to survive the numerous RSF checkpoints and patrols to reach Tawila reported witnessing mass executions, torture, beatings, and sexual violence. Some were abducted by armed men and forced to pay ransoms on pain of death.
Many more people have been forcibly relocated to Al-Daba refugee camp in Sudan’s northern state. Some are there for weeks.
Reporting from the camp, Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan said that in recent days, more refugees have been flowing in from El Fasher, worsening the humanitarian situation.
With many people camping out, people are in need of food, clean water, medicine and shelter. Thousands more may be evacuated to camps and other surrounding areas in the coming days as people flee massacres by RSF fighters.
The United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt as mediators have all condemned the genocide and called for increased humanitarian aid.
“The RSF must cease engaging in retaliation and ethnic violence. The tragedy of El Geneina must not be repeated,” the US State Department said in a statement on Saturday, referring to the Massalit massacre in the capital of West Darfur state.
“There is no viable military solution, and outside military support will only prolong the conflict. The United States calls on both sides to pursue a negotiated path to ending the suffering of the Sudanese people,” the paper said in a post on X.
US lawmakers are also calling for action from Washington following the RSF takeover of El Fasher.
Republican Sen. Jim Risch (Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on Friday for the United States to formally designate the RSF as a “foreign terrorist organization.”
