Sudanese army finds overwhelming suffering after breaking RSF siege of embattled city

William Brangham:

Today, a U.N.-backed watchdog group that tracks hunger warned that famine is spreading to more parts of Darfur in Western Sudan.

Sudan is already enduring the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. And, today, a paramilitary rebel group, the Rapid Support Forces, struck a military hospital, reportedly killing at least 22 people.

The U.N. says the war between the RSF and Sudan's army has driven 14 million people from their homes and killed an estimated 40,000.

Nick Schifrin and producer Zeba Warsi spoke to civilians trapped in the epicenter of this nearly 3-year-old civil war.

Nick Schifrin:

With guns in the air, the Sudanese military declared a city of 100,000 finally free.

For two years, Kadugli had been strangled by the paramilitary rebel group Rapid Support Forces. This week, the streets were strewn with supporters of Sudan's army chief, who declared them liberated.

Gen Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, Sudanese Armed Forces (through interpreter):

Congratulations to the people of Kadugli on the liberation of the city, and congratulations to our people in Kadugli on the arrival of the armed forces. The armed forces will reach every place in Sudan.

Nick Schifrin:

But this moment follows months of relentless violence. Sudan's armed forces pushed deeper into RSF-held cities. They broke the RSF siege, but revealed overwhelming suffering. In a refugee camp outside Kadugli, survivors living in tents after fleeing their homes share stories of hunger and horror.

Haja Bahareldin is one of many here suffering overwhelming grief.

Haja Bahareldin, Displaced Sudanese Woman (through interpreter):

One of my children died on the road, and when I got here, my twins died together. Three of my children have died. Now I have no small child to carry in my arms.

Nick Schifrin:

Mothers who've lost children to hunger and entire families to drone attacks.

Zakia Ramadan, Displaced Sudanese Woman (through interpreter):

My brother and nephew and son were killed when we left. We had nothing for the children. I have four children who died, three girls and a boy. They all died of hunger.

Nick Schifrin:

A local aid worker in Dilling, a city held by the RSF since the war began in 2023, sent us this message.

Man:

There is a famine, families forced to eat tree leaves and grass to survive. There is death amongst the families. One case is death of five children from one family due to poisoning after eating grass. Many families have lost members due to shelling and due to attacks by drone.

Nick Schifrin:

After the RSF carried out brutal killings in Darfur's El Fasher late last year and seized control of the entire Darfur region, the focus of the war shifted east to Sudan's central, oil-rich Kordofan region.

In South Kordofan, the army has retaken the state's capital and richest cities. And in North Kordofan, the RSF has intensified drone strikes, expanding its reach and attacking the city of El Obeid.

As the SAF and RSF battle for control, civilians lose everything. This house was hit last month, killing nine members of the same family, including seven children.

Moussa Adam, Neighbor and Eyewitness (through interpreter): When we came, we found the children under the rubble, under the iron, under the beds. Only God knows the state of the children's bodies. They used to be living people and they became dead bodies. This is what happened.

Nick Schifrin:

In El Obeid, satellite imagery from the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab shows nearly 100 new burial mounds in just two weeks between January 2 and January 14.

Man:

Sounds of the war everywhere.

Nick Schifrin:

We spoke to this aid worker in South Kordofan who asked us to blur his identity. He's trying to help the displaced, who are receiving little to no help.

Man:

Civilians are suffering a lot without any support from any humanitarian actors. So, this is the suffering of the civilians here since the eruption of this conflict.

Nick Schifrin:

It erupted in April 2023 as a power struggle that became a brutal civil war. Sudanese cities have become battlegrounds. Both sides are accused of war crimes.

But in Darfur in Western Sudan, the RSF is accused of genocide. The rebels descend from the government-backed Janjaweed militias that in the 2000s brutally crushed an uprising and killed hundreds of thousands of non-Arabs. Then, too, the U.S. labeled their actions genocide.

Today's report by the umbrella organization that declares famine says famine has spread in North Darfur and more than half of all children under five suffer acute malnutrition. And it reports that, in Kordofan, people are now more likely to die due to hunger.