Sudan remains in desperate need of humanitarian assistance as senior military leaders show no sign of halting the civil war, with violence and killings continuing in North Darfur’s el-Fasher.

International aid organizations on Sunday urged both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to allow greater access for humanitarian aid. Their appeal comes as mediation efforts and a proposed roadmap have so far failed to secure a ceasefire.

The crisis deepened a week after the RSF captured el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, following an 18-month siege marked by starvation and blockade tactics. Conditions on the ground are described as catastrophic.

Tens of thousands of civilians are reportedly trapped in the city, the last major urban center in western Darfur to fall under RSF control, while thousands of others remain missing after fleeing the violence. Only a small number of those who escaped on foot have managed to reach Tawila, located about 50km (30 miles) away.

Speaking from Tawila, an official with a France-based aid group told reporters that only a few hundred additional people had arrived in recent days.

Bouvard described a “complete blackout” in terms of information coming out of el-Fasher since the RSF takeover. She said aid groups now rely on updates from nearby areas, where as many as 15,000 people are believed to be stranded. “There’s a strong request for advocacy with the different parties to ensure that humanitarian aid can reach these people or that at least we can send in trucks to bring them back to Tawila,” she added.

Survivors who reached Tawila after enduring numerous RSF checkpoints reported harrowing accounts of mass executions, torture, sexual violence, and abductions. Many said they were forced to pay ransoms under threat of death.

Thousands of others have been displaced to the al-Dabbah refugee camp in Sudan’s Northern State, where some have been sheltering for weeks.

Displaced people urgently need food, clean water, medicine, and shelter. Many are sleeping in the open, and aid agencies fear that thousands more may flee to al-Dabbah and nearby regions as RSF attacks continue.

Mediators, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt, have condemned the killings and demanded unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid.

“The RSF must stop engaging in retribution and ethnic violence; the tragedy in El Geneina must not be repeated,” the US Department of State said in a statement on Saturday, referring to the massacre of the Masalit people in West Darfur’s capital.

“There isn’t a viable military solution, and external military support only prolongs the conflict. The United States urges both parties to pursue a negotiated path to end the suffering of the Sudanese people,” the statement added in a post on X.

In the wake of the RSF’s capture of el-Fasher, US lawmakers have called for stronger action from Washington. Republican Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Friday urged the US to designate the RSF as a “foreign terrorist organisation.”