(AGENPARL) – Tue 18 November 2025 Logo ICRC EN.jpg      International Committee of the Red Cross
Sudan: Families fleeing Al-Fasher recount harrowing violence, face dire needs
ICRC – Video News Footage
18 November 2025
Port Sudan (ICRC) – After months of heavy fighting, thousands of families have escaped the Sudanese city of Al Fasher in recent weeks and reached the city of Tawila – exhausted, hungry and with almost no belongings. Teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) assisting new arrivals say the flow is increasing daily, as civilians flee violence, food shortages and the collapse of medical services.
Those who fled Al Fasher described attacks and scenes of panic as they left the city. Jamila Ismail, a mother of seven, recalled desperately searching for her son after a local market was attacked: “I thought he might have been killed,” she said. “I searched for him among the dead at the market. Bodies were scattered everywhere. The situation at the market was chaotic and heartbreaking. Some were crying, begging to be treated, but no one would help them. Everyone was busy treating the ones they knew. I kept looking for my son, hoping I would find him. But I couldn’t.”
She eventually found her son Ibrahim, alive but severely wounded. He had been taken to one of the few medical structures still functioning in the city. With the support of a neighbour, Jamila and her family managed to flee Al Fasher. They are now in Tawila, joining thousands of others who recount similar stories of death, abuse and losing touch with their loved ones.
Tawila has rapidly become the epicentre of the humanitarian response in North Darfur, with makeshift camps absorbing hundreds of displaced civilians from Al Fasher every day. Conditions in Tawila are dire, with families struggling to access food, water, shelter and medical care.
Hussein Ibrahim Rasool, the ICRC’s deputy economic security coordinator in Sudan, described the scale of the crisis and explained the ongoing response. “Thousands of families have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the conflict. They have arrived here in Tawila, and they are arriving on a daily basis. They are mostly women, children and the elderly. Their situation is extremely difficult. They are not even able to cover their basic needs. They are hungry, thirsty, traumatized and exhausted. Some of them are even injured or sick and lost contact with their loved ones.”
In Tawila, the ICRC has scaled up its humanitarian response to meet the critical needs of the affected communities. Together with the Sudanese Red Crescent Society (SRCS), ICRC teams have already provided financial assistance to 10,000 families – around 60,000 displaced people – and are increasing assistance for newly arrived families, which will cover an additional 12,000 households – around 72,000 people.
This support also includes delivering essential medical supplies and operational assistance to the MSF-supported hospital and nearby medical points in the form of dressing materials, staff incentives and contributions to running costs.
The ICRC has registered approximately 7,000 missing persons in total in relation to the conflict in Sudan. The ICRC and SRCS have facilitated hundreds of phone calls in Tawila to help families stay connected with their loved ones.
Note to editors: ICRC’s Regional Director for Africa, Patrick Youssef, will attend the U.N. briefing in Geneva on Tuesday, 18 November, to talk about the situation in Sudan.
Footage available from the ICRC Video Newsroom
About the ICRC
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a neutral, impartial and independent organization with an exclusively humanitarian mandate that stems from the Geneva Conventions of 1949. It helps people around the world affected by armed conflict and other violence, doing everything it can to protect their lives and dignity and to relieve their suffering, often alongside its Red Cross and Red Crescent partners.
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