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Sudan war: Aid teams plead for access to thousands trapped in El Fasher
Just how many people are still trapped in the Sudanese city of El Fasher?
That’s the burning question for relatives of the many thousands of people believed to still be there, since paramilitary fighters overran the regional capital of North Darfur last month, after a 500-day siege.
That ordeal reduced people to eating peanut shells and animal feed, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Friday, before condemning the reported mass killings of civilians, executions based on ethnicity and other atrocities, which are likely continuing.
At the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Mr. Türk told Member States that bloodstains on the ground in El Fasher can be seen from space.
Warnings were clear
“We warned that the fall of the city to the Rapid Support Forces would result in a bloodbath,” he said, before calling for immediate international action to stop the violence at a special meeting convened by concerned Member States. “All those involved in this conflict should know: we are watching you, and justice must prevail,” the High Commissioner insisted.
According to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, nearly 100,000 people have fled El Fasher and villages close by in the last two weeks alone.
“They are stranded somewhere,” said the agency’s Head of Sub Office in Port Sudan, Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet. Families arriving in Tawila, about 50 kilometres from El Fasher have recounted “unimaginable horrors” before and after fleeing the city, she said.
Briefing journalists in Geneva via video, Ms. Parlevliet highlighted widespread reports of rape and sexual violence by escapees and scenes of desperation.
“Parents are searching for missing children, many traumatized due to conflict and the dangerous journey to reach safety. Unable to pay ransoms, families have lost young male relatives to arrests or forced recruitment into armed groups,” the UNHCR official explained.
Trapped in a cycle of horror
Those hoping to find safety away from El Fasher face ever more dangerous journeys skirting around military checkpoints, some travelling for up to 15 days with limited food and water before reaching shelter in locations including Ad Dabbah in Northern state.
The small town on the bank of the river Nile now houses at least 37,000 people from El Fasher and thousands more are thought to be on their way.
Reports also indicate that armed groups are forcibly returning many people to El Fasher where conditions are dire, UNHCR said, citing local sources.
“Thousands of people, particularly the elderly, those with disabilities and the wounded, remain trapped, either prevented from leaving the city or lacking the means or strength to flee,” Ms. Parlevliet told journalists.
A crisis of staggering proportions
Sudan is the world’s largest displacement crisis with more than 12 million people uprooted inside and outside the country.
For many of those attempting to return home elsewhere in the vast east African nation, the threat of unexploded weapons remains huge, according to the UN Mine Action Service, UNMAS.
It noted that in South Kordofan, West Kordofan, and Blue Nile States alone, 13 million square kilometres of land are contaminated.
“There are many other countries that are affected by explosive remnants of war and landmines...Sudan is very different. Why? Because, war is mainly happening in urban areas,” said Sediq Rashid, Chief of UNMAS Sudan, speaking from Port Sudan.
He explained that just within the capital, Khartoum, risks ranged from unexploded and abandoned ammunitions, anti-vehicle mines and anti-personnel mines.
Displaced families are particularly at risk, often settling in unfamiliar locations “without any awareness of past conflicts or contamination”, Mr. Rashid continued.
Meanwhile, civilian casualties from mines and other unexploded ordnance continue to rise – “and we know that the cases that are being reported represent only a fraction of the true scale of the harm”, he said.
Sudan humanitarian update – UNHCR, UNMAS, WHO
TRT: 3 min 10s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 14 NOVEMBER 2025 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Speakers:
- Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet, Head of Sub Office in Port Sudan, UNHCR (from Port Sudan)
- Sediq Rashid, Chief Mine Action Programme, UNMAS (from Port Sudan)
- Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson, WHO
SHOTLIST
- Exterior wide: UN Geneva flag alley.
- Wide, UN Geneva Press room, podium speakers, journalists and external speaker in Sudan.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet, Head of Sub Office in Port Sudan, UNHCR: “The people that are stranded, we think given, you know, the data people that have left El Fasher, which are approximately 90,000 people. But then in terms of arrivals to other locations, we don't see that number reflected. So, they are stranded somewhere.
- Medium-wide, journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet, Head of Sub Office in Port Sudan, UNHCR: “And one of the locations where people were stranded, where there is now limited humanitarian access is a place called Korma. And so we know that about 10,000 people are stranded there, waiting for transport or for other support to move to Tawila.”
- Wide, podium speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet, Head of Sub Office in Port Sudan, UNHCR: ““There are a significant number of people remaining in El Fasher and a significant number of people that are on the move, stranded somewhere, not able to move further because of the danger or because they risk being sent back El Fasher, or because there are very vulnerable people amongst the group, such as persons with disability.”
- Wide, Press room, TV journalist, technical staff.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Sediq Rashid, Chief Mine Action Programme, UNMAS (from Port Sudan): “Sudan faces an extremely complex contamination landscape, unexploded and abandoned ammunitions, anti-vehicle mines and more recently confirmed anti-personnel mines within Khartoum itself.”
- Wide, Press room, TV screens showing external speaker.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Sediq Rashid, Chief Mine Action Programme, UNMAS (from Port Sudan): ““There are many other countries that are affected by explosive remnants of war and landmines. But this time, Sudan is very, very different. Why? Because, war is mainly happening in urban areas.”
- Medium-wide, podium speakers, journalists, TV screen showing external speaker.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson, WHO: “People are dying from a lack of access to basic, essential healthcare medication, as per our latest emergency report in that direction, only 48 per cent - so less than half of the health facilities across all of Sudan's 18 states - are fully functioning and 12 per cent of the facilities are partially functioning, 40 are non-functioning.”
- Medium-wide, Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson, WHO: “Sudan is one of the world's largest food crises, with over 21 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity as of September this year. And the famine, as you know, was confirmed in El Fasher and Kadugli towns and 20 areas across Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan area are at risk of famine.”
- Wide, TV screens showing external speaker, Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson, WHO: “Cholera, we have already reports about over 120,000 cases and about 3,500 associated deaths. That's reported from 151 localities in all Sudan's 18 states by 1 November, just very recent.”
- Medium-wide, Press room.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
ends