Sudan’s army claims to have broken the siege of a southern city; survivors describe starvation and death

Sudan’s army claims to have ended the RSF paramilitary forces’ protracted siege of the southern city of al-Dalanj. During the siege, residents reported that many people were murdered by artillery and drone attacks while hunger grew and supplies of medication became limited.

Residents had been forced to eat nothing but leaves and animal skin, according to one survivor who spoke to Reuters, and some children had perished from starvation. Others said that people had passed away as a result of their inability to obtain necessary medications or travel for medical care.

Shortly after the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) went to war in April 2023, the siege of al-Dalanj started. After the RSF and the SPLM-N, a rebel organization that controls territory in the area, joined forces last year, it became more intense.

The Sudanese army declared late on Monday that “the armed forces and supporting forces were able to forcibly and decisively open the road to Al-Dalanj, after carrying out a successful military operation.”

A request for comment on the army statement was not answered by the RSF. On Tuesday, residents of al-Dalanj reported numerous drone assaults.

If maintained, the win would indicate a change in momentum following a number of RSF gains in the latter part of last year.

One of the biggest cities in the oil-producing province of South Kordofan on Sudan’s southern border is Al-Dalanj. Since the RSF took al-Fashir, the army’s final stronghold in the western Darfur region, in October, Greater Kordofan has emerged as the most recent battleground.

The United Nations’ human rights office reports that since then, more than 25,000 people have been forced to leave South Kordofan.

“HUNGER AND HUMILIATION” The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights cautioned Sudanese and RSF officials during a visit to Sudan last week to make sure that “crimes” perpetrated during and after the capture of al-Fashir “are not repeated” in South Kordofan.

Like al-Fashir during the RSF siege, residents who left al-Dalanj prior to Monday reported seeing artillery and drone attacks. “We left because of the hunger and humiliation,” Haja Bahareldin told Reuters, along with other women taking refuge in a camp outside the northern city of al-Obeid, but Reuters was unable to verify their stories right away. “We couldn’t find work… we couldn’t find food.”

She claimed that her two twins passed away after her arrival, and one of her children perished from starvation en route.

“Now I have no small child to carry in my arms,” she stated.

Intense combat has also recently taken place in the Kordofan towns of al-Obeid and Kadugli. Aid workers report that although drone assaults in Kadugli have decreased recently, the siege has resulted in exorbitant costs and a shortage of medication as physicians and others who can afford it escape.

International monitors reported Kadugli to be in famine in November. Although data collection was impossible due to the siege, international experts suggested al-Dalanj was probably going through the same thing.

Another al-Dalanj woman, Tambula Silia, claimed that the city’s citizens were forced to eat nothing but leaves and animal pelts, adding: “I didn’t have a single piece of bread for me or my child for four or five months.”

After the RSF captured the nearby town of Habila, Zakia Ramadan fled to al-Dalanj, where she said four of her children perished from starvation.

Al-Dalanj resident Salma Mohamed told Reuters that when her father needed a heart operation, it was impossible to transfer him out of the city.

“We had to roam around until he died, we didn’t find a way to get him treatment,” she continued.

Similar to those who escaped al-Fashir, those who do manage to escape face a perilous voyage. Of those that escaped with her from al-Dalanj, Silia claimed that “some were taken by the RSF and we don’t know where to.”