Aid workers must also deal with the wave of cholera outbreaks in war-torn Sudan.
The World Food Programme (WFP) says it is “shocked and wary” that facilities in southwestern Sudan are suffering from repeated fires from rapid support forces (RSF) as they are in a brutal civil war in their third year with the Sudanian army.
“Humanitarian staff, assets, operations and supply should never be a target. This should be stopped right now,” the UN agency said on X on Thursday.
#sudan pic.twitter.com/c4axts9zhy
– WFP Media (@WFP_Media) May 29, 2025
Elfasher is the last major city held by the Sudanese army in the Darfur region. Despite international warnings about the risk of violence in cities serving as key humanitarian hubs in the five Darfur states, we have witnessed a fierce battle between the Army and the RSF since May 2024.
For more than a year, the RSF has stolen the Army of Elfasher’s control over 800km (500 miles) southwest of the capital, sought to launch regular attacks on the city and two major hunger camps for suburban refugees.
In addition to humanitarian hardships on the ground, Khartoum’s health ministry on Thursday reported 942 new cholera infections and 25 deaths the day before, following 1,177 cases and 45 deaths the day before.
Aid workers say the magnitude of the cholera outbreak has been exacerbated by almost two collapses in health services, with about 90% of hospitals in major war zones becoming unoperated.
Since August 2024, Sudan has reported more than 65,000 cholera cases and at least 1,700 dead cases in 12 of 18 states. Khartoum alone has seen 7,700 cases and 185 deaths, including over 1,000 infections in children under the age of five.
The Sudan Army Support Government in Khartoum Province announced earlier this month that all the state’s relief initiatives must be registered with the Humanitarian Aid Committee (HAC), the governmental body that oversees Sudan’s humanitarian operations.
Aid workers and activists fear that these regulations will lead to crackdowns on local relief volunteers and exacerbate the catastrophic hunger crisis that affects 25 million people across the country.
HAC was given expanded authority in 2006 by former leader Omar al-Bashir to crack down on local and western aid groups to advocate registration, surveillance and critics’ claims, according to local relief volunteers and experts.
The Army Support Government announced last week that it had driven away RSF fighter jets from its last base in Khartoum, two months after recapturing the capital’s centre from paramilitary groups.
Nevertheless, the city remains in ruins due to its health and sanitation infrastructure being barely functional.
RSF has been fighting the SAF for Sudan’s control since April 2023. The civil war killed more than 20,000 people, uprooted 15 million, creating what we consider to be the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
