CSW has joined 100 organisations and humanitarian actors in calling for the establishment of safe, voluntary and dignified passage for civilians trapped in the city of El Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur State, where an estimated 260,000 people, including 130,000 children, have endured a 17-month siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).  

The letter calls for decisive intervention by the international community in light of evidence published by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab that the RSF has built walls at the edges of the city to control the movement of persons. Reports from those who have managed to leave the city indicate that men and boys are being targeted and killed on the road out of the city, making it more dangerous for them to leave than to stay. 

El Fasher is the main battle ground between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in Darfur as it is the only city that is not under RSF control. The city has been under siege since April 2024, despite a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution calling on the RSF to lift it. In April 2025 the RSF seized the Abu Souk and Zamzam camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), located approximately 15km from the city. The two camps form the largest IDP settlement in Sudan, housing over 700,000 people between them. Both camps have been turned into military bases by the RSF.    

Places of worship have been targeted during the siege. Between May and September 2025, the Sudan Episcopal Church was hit six times by RSF shelling, namely on 22 May, 9 June, 24 June, 5 July, 16 August and 5 September. In the most recent attack, two people were killed whilst sheltering in the church amid RSF shelling of SAF locations near the Abou Souk camp. Five others were injured and seven remain unaccounted for.  

As fighting intensified in August and early September, a church leader in El Fasher began mobilising support to facilitate the evacuation of those physically able to flee to other localities, including to Garni and Tawilla villages. While some families managed to escape, as of mid-September nine families, consisting of approximately 50 people, remained in El Fasher.  

On 16 September the RSF advanced into the town from the northwest, including into Abu Souk IDP camp and the al-Nasir neighbourhood, where the Christian community had been sheltering in two remaining churches in the area. The Christian community evacuated the churches and moved to another location. Reports from CSW sources suggest that the RSF are currently occupying the Pentecostal and Episcopal churches and using them for military purposes, including setting up snipers, and for deploying military personnel.  

On 19 September at least 70 people were killed when the RSF attacked a mosque near the Abu Souk Camp. 

The UN’s Human Rights Office has warned that ‘there are no safe exit routes out of the city, and civilians are trapped in a situation of impossible choices: stay in El Fasher, and risk bombardment, starvation, and atrocities if the RSF overrun the city; or flee, and face the risk of summary execution, sexual violence, and abduction.’   

CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: ‘CSW is gravely concerned at the continuing siege of El Fasher and its dire humanitarian impact. We call for urgent action to ensure safe passage for civilians who would like to leave the city. We are also deeply concerned by the attacks on places of worship which, together with the reported use of such religious establishments for military purposes, constitute violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law. We continue to call on the international community to do all it can to pressure parties to the conflict to initiate an immediate, nationwide ceasefire.’