Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on November 19, 2025
3 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
The UN is pressing for access to al-Fashir, Sudan, after reports of mass atrocities by RSF. Aid chief Tom Fletcher highlights the urgent need for humanitarian intervention.
By Reade Levinson
N'DJAMENA (Reuters) -The United Nations is pushing to gain access to al-Fashir, the famine-stricken city in Darfur where witnesses have reported mass reprisals since a takeover by Sudan's Rapid Support Forces last month, U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher said.
Fletcher told Reuters it would be a huge task to provide aid to the city, which would be treated as a "crime scene" for investigations following reports of systematic executions, detentions, and rapes.
Many of those thought to have remained in al-Fashir when the paramilitary RSF took control following a long siege are still unaccounted for.
Safe passage was needed for humanitarians to enter the city and for survivors to leave, Fletcher said in an interview late on Tuesday from N'Djamena in Chad, following a visit to Darfur.
Fletcher said talks with the RSF were "super delicate" but he hoped the U.N. would gain access in days or weeks, not months. “We will put in the hard work to get in," he said.
ATROCITIES 'ON A HORRIFIC SCALE'
Al-Fashir's fall on October 26 has cemented the RSF's control of the Darfur region in its 2-1/2-year war with the Sudanese army. The city has been cut off from communications since the RSF offensive.
"There have been mass atrocities, mass executions, mass torture, sexual violence on a horrific scale," Fletcher said. "This is a city that has been under siege for so long, they’ll need food, water, medicine."
"There's a massive job ahead of us," he added.
The RSF says reports of atrocities have been exaggerated but that it was investigating cases of abuses by its soldiers. The International Criminal Court has said it is collecting evidence of alleged mass killings and rapes in al-Fashir.
Though more than 100,000 people are thought to have fled al-Fashir since the RSF takeover, only a fraction of those have reached the nearby town of Tawila, controlled by neutral forces.
Most of the rest are thought to be in inaccessible villages around al-Fashir.
PUSH FOR FULL ACCESS
Fletcher, who visited Tawila, where an estimated half a million displaced people were already sheltering, described the 350km (217 mile) journey from there to the border with Chad as "utterly perilous".
Few people had the resources to get through an estimated 30-40 checkpoints along the route, "which is why it’s so urgent that we get the full authority to operate at scale inside Sudan -- inside Darfur, Tawila, and in al-Fashir," he said.
Fletcher said aid deliveries would be contingent on the RSF providing safe passage for U.N. convoys as well as fleeing civilians, and providing accountability for fighters who have committed atrocities.
The U.N. aid chief also said he held talks with Sudan’s army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan last week in Port Sudan for full access to the country. The Sudanese army has placed bureaucratic roadblocks to such access in the past.
(Writing by Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
Humanitarian aid refers to assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to crises such as natural disasters, armed conflicts, or famine, aimed at saving lives and alleviating suffering.
International organizations are entities formed by multiple countries to address global issues, promote cooperation, and provide assistance in areas like humanitarian aid, economic development, and peacekeeping.
Emergency funding is financial assistance provided quickly to address urgent needs arising from crises, such as natural disasters or humanitarian emergencies, to help affected populations recover.
Systematic executions refer to the organized and deliberate killing of individuals, often carried out by authorities or armed groups, typically as part of a broader campaign of violence or repression.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an international tribunal established to prosecute individuals for crimes such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, aiming to promote accountability and justice.
Explore more articles in the Headlines category
