Little aid does not find a besieged path despite international promises policy

Al-Fasher- The suffering of civilians trapped in the city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, is exacerbated daily, where repeated international promises are destroyed by delivering humanitarian aid on the rock of the military blockade and continuous clashes.

Despite the international warnings of a famine, the doors of the city are still closed to most aid, at a time when more than a quarter of a million Sudanese suffer from a severe food and medicine shortage, amid a near -complete collapse of health and humanitarian services.

On the sidelines of the work of the United Nations General Assembly, and after the meeting of the Quartet Group countries, the statements of Masaad Paul, the high advisor to US President Donald Trump for Arab and Middle East affairs, came to send hope despite his fragility.

The American official expressed his hope to enter humanitarian aid “in the coming days” to the city of El Fasher, which has been besieged by the Rapid Support Forces for more than a year and has been in escalating violence.

He added, “We discussed with the Rapid Support Forces and we agreed on a way that allows the delivery of this humanitarian aid,” stressing the importance of ending the conflict in Sudan, restoring peace, and meeting the humanitarian needs of the Sudanese people.

Limited sources

The numbers reveal a shocking gap that reflects the scale of the disaster, while Darfur needs thousands of tons of food and medicine monthly, the total of what reached the entire region during the past six months did not exceed a few thousand tons, according to local sources, as these quantities are almost not remembered compared to the tremendous need, especially while preventing their access completely to Al -Fasher, which is described as the center of the crisis.

Speaking to Al -Jazeera Net, the Minister of Human Resources and Social Welfare, Dr. Mutasim Saleh, said that “the aid that is reaching Darfur is much lower than the actual needs, and the main reason is the restrictions imposed on the roads, and the tightened siege by the Rapid Support Forces.”

He added that the statements of the American official “reflect legitimate international pressure, but they remain closer to political messages than being a practical commitment to implement in light of the deliberate security obstacles.”

Despite the diversity of aid sources, the quantity that actually reaches civilians in Darfur remains very small. Humanitarian aid in Sudan, designated for the Darfur region, comes from 3 main sources:

• United Nations organizations are considered the primary provider, but they face serious obstacles to transportation and distribution.
• Aid comes from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Egypt, but they remain limited and irregular.
• Local initiatives, including individual charitable efforts or Sudanese societies, but are unable to meet the huge needs.

Who hinders the arrival of aid?

Since the tenth of June 2024, the Rapid Support Forces have imposed a suffocating siege on the city of El Fasher, using the “starvation” against civilians, in a tactic that violates international humanitarian law, and the city has also been subjected to daily artillery shelling that prevents residents from the safe movement and prevents the arrival of humanitarian aid.

Dr. Abdel Nasser Salam Hamed, Director of the East Africa and Sudan Program at the Fox Research Center in Sweden – Al Jazeera Net – says that the political nature of the conflict in Darfur turned humanitarian action into a hostage.

He added that “the aid has become a negotiating and pressure tool in the hands of the warring parties, while the international community is satisfied with launching anxiety data that does not change the reality of slow death.”

Hamed asserts that “preventing relief arrival is a war crime in accordance with international humanitarian law, because it directly targets civilians and violates the essence of the Geneva Conventions,” and adds that “this model threatens regional stability, and encourages other parties in various conflicts to adopt the same method.”

He points out that “the blockade imposed on El -Fasher is not just a human isolation, but rather is part of a military plan aimed at pressuring the Sudanese army,” explaining that with the starvation of civilians, rapid support seeks to find internal pressure, weaken morale, and cut supply lines coming from North Kordofan, Libya and Chad.

“These tactics restore to the minds of the siege of Sarajevo, the starvation of Madaya, and the siege of Taiz, all of which are models in which starvation was used as a war weapon, and the United Nations described it as crimes against humanity, that what is happening in El -Fasher is going on the same approach, but it is in an almost complete silence.”

He concludes by saying that “the steadfastness or fall of Al -Fasher will not be determined by the military factor alone, but also the extent of the international community’s ability to break this siege through protected humanitarian corridors, as the issue is no longer related to food security, but with the fate of a complete city that gradually turns into a test of the legitimacy of international law.”

Field certificate

From the heart of Al -Fasher, Amina Mohamed, 42, to Al -Jazeera Net, moves the image of the daily oppression that the population lives, and says that “promises reach us as thunder, but the rain does not come down, our children humiliate in front of our eyes, and hospitals are empty, we hear about conferences and quadruple, but we only see bombing and hunger” and adds, “We live in hope, but hope does not feed the hungry.”

Experts warn that the continuation of the crisis in El -Fasher may lead to serious repercussions in the region, with the number of displaced people in the vicinity and the state of Chad doubled, as pressure on scarce resources already increases, and the spread of light weapons on a large scale constitutes a threat to the entire regional security.

The relief activist Ahmed Abdel -Qader – to Al -Jazeera Net – says that the humanitarian action in Darfur is hostage to the political and military conflict, noting that the relief teams face continuous threats, and that the aid is prohibited from reaching the most affected areas such as El -Fasher, and added, “We are working in harsh conditions, we are trying to save lives, but we collide with walls of ignoring, promises and restrictions.”

Al -Jazeera Net was unable to obtain an immediate comment from a spokesman for the Rapid Support Forces to respond to these accusations, and any official statements from the United Nations were absent on specific mechanisms to break the siege and enter aid, which increases the concerns of the trapped population that the promises of aid will turn into mere memories in the human suffering record.