April 12, 2026
The arid, poor, western region of Sudan, called Darfur, has been a complex emergency for twenty-three years, with mass displacement and an increasing problem of starvation and malnutrition. Aid to prevent starvation is prevented by the inability of aid agencies to reach those in need, due to violence. A two-year siege of the regional capital of El-Fasher reflected the unending war between the two combatant groups, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces).
Using themal imaging, the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at Yale University has recently published evidence of attacks against civilians Darfur. Yales’s new HRL report provides detail of targeted burning, destruction and razing of 41 agrarian villages northwest of El-Fasher in darfur. These communities were ethnically Zaghawa who produce food for the region, but following attacks, they halted agricultural work. The Yale lab report finds: “decreases in agricultural activity during the growing period following the razing of communities assessed through year-on-year changes in land use/land cover.”
The Yale lab and this report use remote sensing to measure changes in food security in non-permissive environments. Satellite imagery of farming communities are shown in the photo at the top-left and at the map at right.
Oona Hathaway has called attention to famine as a war crime in Darfur, western Sudan. “We conclude that the new Yale HRL report provies compeelling evidence relevant to multiple RSF starvation crises in the vicinity of El-Fasher, including war crimes, crimes against humanity…. Well over 11 million people have been displaced by the conflict, which has caused desperate levels of food insecurity, including multiple determinations of famine.” She continues, “the fighting and the parties’ well-documented obstruction of humanitarian relief have, for extended periods, made the, made the transportation of food and aid to places that desperately need it nearly impossible.”
The economic and livelihood implications of the crisis have spread beyond the agricultural sector. “Nearly 70 percent of bank branches have closed and ceased operation in conflict zones across Sudan. Bank closures, limited cash liquidity, and high transfer commission rates ranging from 10 to 30 percent have contribu ted to financial strain and limits any ability to sell and purchase food commodities, exacerbating food insecurity.”
Several locations in Darfur report acute malnutrition rates above 50%, which is very high. Around 800,000 childhood cases of servere malnutrition, the most dangerous and deadly form of malnutrition, are expected nationwide this year in The Sudan.
Food aid does not benefit from a stable pipeline to Darfur, some food coming from Chad. Much of the food is brought in by the World Food Programme. NGOs responding include the Norwegian Refugee Council, CARE, Food for the Hungry and Concern Worldwide.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has provided food and cash, and health care for livestock, and rehabilitated water infrastructure (e.g., hand pumps in rural North, Central, and West Darfur) benefiting tens of thousands; conducted cholera response campaigns with chlorination and hygiene promotion in Tawila (North Darfur) and Al Daein (East Darfur), reaching over 117,000 people and distributed water filters.
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