Sudan Nashra: Divisions within Security and Defense Council over US-led ceasefire proposal | Fasher turns into a city run by ransom | Kordofan fronts rage, 300 civilians killed in RSF-held Bara

Barely ten days have passed since the fall of Fasher to the Rapid Support Forces, and accounts from residents still trapped in the city — as well as those who managed to escape at great cost — paint an alarming picture of life under the rule of the paramilitary group.

Relatives of those inside record their video calls, turning them into a means of documenting abuses and hardships. Some of these recordings, obtained by Mada Masr, show a city run by a system of ransoms and levies — ransoms to leave, to stay, to fetch water, or simply to go look for a medicine for a sick child, a medicine that likely no longer exists. 

Ransoms start at half a million Sudanese pounds (US$125), but for those who cannot afford it, even after giving up everything they own, the sum can drop to 20,000 or 50,000 — whatever they can scrape together.

Whether a family pays ransom for a detained relative or pays for food, they can likely afford only one of the two.

Food prices have reached “astronomical” levels, members of Fasher’s resistance committees told Mada Masr, while the city’s health system has completely collapsed. 

Famine has now been declared in Fasher, as well as in Kadugli in South Kordofan — both cities that have endured devastating sieges by the RSF and its allies.

With the fall of Fasher marking the military’s loss of Darfur, the full weight of Sudan’s war has now shifted to Kordofan. There, the military is scrambling to fortify both its military and political position ahead of a possible ceasefire agreement, as the world watches to see the fate of the proposal put forward by the United States and backed by Egypt in Cairo on Monday. The meetings in Cairo were the first time the military was brought back to the negotiation table since the Jeddah Agreement in 2023.

The Security and Defense Council met on Tuesday to discuss the military provisions and proposed amendments to the plan. A source in the Transitional Sovereignty Council said divisions persist within the council over whether to endorse the proposal, with some members expressing “no confidence” in the RSF.

While diplomatic efforts remain uncertain, the RSF presses on in Kordofan, while the military fights back with airstrikes and ground assaults to defend North Kordofan’s Obeid and retake the strategic city of Bara, which fell to the RSF over ten days ago.

Since then, Bara’s residents have endured dire humanitarian conditions, with over 300 civilians killed at the hands of the RSF and around 40,000 forced to flee, medical and government sources said.

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Security and Defense Council discusses terms of US-led ceasefire proposal

The Security and Defense Council convened on Tuesday in Khartoum under the chairmanship of the military Commander-in-Chief and Transitional Sovereignty Council Chair Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, to discuss the military terms and proposed amendments to the US-led humanitarian ceasefire plan presented to the Sudanese delegation in Cairo on Monday.

The US-led proposal begins with a three-month ceasefire, during which negotiations would be held to reach a comprehensive end to the war and launch a political dialogue between the TSC, the RSF and representatives of all Sudanese forces with the aim of forming a joint executive authority to resume the political process during a three-year transition, two Egyptian government sources told Mada Masr.

According to a TSC source in Port Sudan, the council discussed the conditions for implementing the ceasefire from a military standpoint. It approved amendments concerning mechanisms for monitoring the ceasefire, its duration and the guarantees required to ensure full compliance.

Regarding international monitoring, the source said the council said other countries such as Qatar and Turkey must be included, arguing that the current Quad — Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and the US — alone could not provide adequate guarantees, citing its failure to pressure the RSF to allow humanitarian aid into Fasher during the city’s siege.

The source said council members were divided over whether to agree to the ceasefire. Some members — including the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Arko Minnawi — took a position of “no confidence” toward the RSF, citing previous failed ceasefires and broken commitments. Others, whom the source did not name, expressed willingness to enter into a ceasefire provided that its implementation remained governed by military terms.

Internal deliberations within the council are expected to continue throughout the day to reach a final unified stance, according to the source.

Defense Minister Hassan Dawoud Kabron said in a press statement following the meeting that the council supports ongoing efforts to end the suffering of the Sudanese people, expressing the government’s thanks to the US and to Senior Advisor for African and Arab Affairs Massad Boulous.

Kabron then said the council called for “continued mobilization efforts to eliminate the rebel militia.”

The council meeting was attended by the council’s full membership, including Prime Minister Kamel Idris and the military members of the TSC —  Shams Eddin Kabashi, Ibrahim Gaber and Yasser al-Atta — as well as representatives of the Juba Peace Agreement signatory armed movements, led by Minnawi and Gibril Ibrahim. The heads of the General Intelligence Service and military intelligence were also present.

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Fasher turns into a city run by ransom

The fall of Fasher — Darfur’s largest city and its administrative capital — set off one of the largest waves of displacement from the city since the start of the war.

But while thousands managed to flee, at least 200,000 people remain trapped inside the city.

According to the United Nations, the number of people leaving Fasher, which Darfur Governor Minni Arko Minnawi estimated at 30,000 in 48 hours, fell sharply several days after the RSF assault — meaning that the rest remain caught as the paramilitary effectively sealed the city off.

In an attempt to understand what life now looks like under RSF control, Mada Masr spoke with relatives of those still trapped inside, who shared recorded video calls with their family members — a way Fasher’s residents use to document violations and hardships. We also spoke to several residents who escaped two days after the city’s fall. 

People say little, because it has become dangerous to speak. But the stories that came through tell of men detained for failing to pay ransom or other levies, of women who lost their children in the crush for water and of food “sold like gold.”

In one of Fasher’s neighborhoods, M.H. appears in the video call shared with Mada Masr sitting outside his partially destroyed home, recalling the night the city fell: “They came suddenly, shouting random names. They took me and three of my neighbors, accusing us of hiding weapons. Where they held us, anyone who asked questions was beaten,” he said.

“Two days later, they sent my family a small note with a number — the amount they demanded for my release. My cousin paid it. The same thing happened to many others who were released only after paying ransom.”

In the city’s eastern neighborhoods, S.A., who used to sell boiled wheat in the market, was salvaging what remained of her utensils after her stall was shut down. “Prices jumped tenfold. Water I used to buy for 30,000 Sudanese pounds ($7.5) now costs 400,000 Sudanese pounds ($100),” she said.

“They came to my house, accused me of hiding food for the military, took my money and told me if I left the neighborhood — even just to fetch water — I’d have to pay ransom.”

In another neighborhood in the city, A.S., who worked in repairing water pumps, can be seen in the recorded video call pointing to a rusted, empty water tank outside his home. He now fills buckets with murky water from a shallow pit dug in the street. “Since the city fell, no water carts have come. The sick die of thirst before hunger,” he said.

When RSF fighters entered his neighborhood, they took five young men. “They accused them of being military supporters, and demanded ransom — plus the flour and sugar we had,” he said.

Describing the “passage fees” imposed by the RSF on anyone attempting to leave Fasher, M.I., a young man who once worked for a private company, said that they were told“anyone leaving must pay 50,000 pounds.”

“My wife and I had only half. After selling everything — our clothes, our few belongings — they finally let us through,” he said.

H.G., who owned an old grocery shop in Gubba neighborhood, closed his shop and fled the city after its fall. “They call it a ‘security’ levy,” he said of the passage fees. On the road to Tawila, he saw RSF fighters stop travelers over and over. “Those who paid passed. Those who didn’t were turned back or detained.”

What they might be forced to return to, however, is a city sinking into desperation. “Food is sold like gold now,” he said. “I saw people sell their furniture for a sack of flour.” 

While food prices have soared beyond reach, there is simply no way to get medicine anymore.

In Salam neighborhood, A.N. lived with her husband and their son, who suffers from asthma. “Our medicine ran out just before the fall. There isn’t a single pharmacy working. My husband went to look for medicine, and they arrested him at a checkpoint, accusing him of spying. He wasn’t released until we paid a ransom of 100,000 [Sudanese] pounds. That’s when we knew we couldn’t stay.”

 A detained citizen is filmed by RSF fighters while forced to ask for a ransom before being threatened with death, posted November 1. Courtesy of Mustafa Salih on Facebook.

In the old Matar neighborhood, F.M., a woman in her mid-sixties, can be seen sitting on her doorstep. “We’re eating what we used to feed the donkeys. My son went to look for flour and never came back. They said he refused to pay what they asked. We don’t know if he’s alive or dead.”

Within a week of the city’s fall, ransom became an unannounced system governing daily life — ransom to move, ransom to leave, ransom to stay. Ransoms start at half a million Sudanese pounds ($125), but for those who cannot afford it, the sum can drop to 20,000 or 50,000 — whatever they can scrape together. The alternative? Detention, or worse.

H.B. described her time inside a temporary detention center. “They asked if I was sending photos to the military. I didn’t even own a phone,” she said. “They kept me for two days in a small room that reeked of blood and sweat. They told my family, ‘Pay 500,000 pounds, or we’ll rape her.’”

Even access to water now requires paying armed men who control the distribution points. 

In the streets, women carry water containers on their heads from distant wells. Men slip out at night to barter what little food they can get, afraid of looting. Children fall asleep hungry to the sound of intermittent gunfire.

At the main hospital, patients lie in dark corridors after the generators ran out of fuel. Members of the resistance committees in Fasher told Mada Masr that hospitals across the city have ceased operations due to power cuts and the lack of medical supplies.

Two refugees in Chad told Mada Masr that some families from Fasher managed to cross the border, joining tens of thousands of others who escaped Sudan’s war to camps already overcrowded. Others chose to remain in remote villages despite the insecurity, fearing arrest or extortion if they returned to Fasher, they said.

The office of Darfur governor Minni Arko Minnawi told Mada Masr last week that the displaced from Fasher moved  toward Tawila, Malit and Kutum. Others moved toward Zamzam and Nivasha, or continued west through dirt roads toward the Chadian border via Kornoy locality. Most fled on foot or by animal-drawn carts, amid fuel shortages and soaring prices. 

Some residents are also moving toward lands belonging to their tribes — the Zaghawa to northwest Fasher and Dabba and the Fur to Jebel Marra and Tawila.

A military source told Mada Masr that the RSF continues to pursue civilians fleeing from Fasher.

Following the displacement of around 3,000 people from the city to the town of Tina along the Chadian border, the RSF launched drone strikes on the town, according to a source in the Sudan Liberation Movement-Transitional Council led by TSC member Abdallah Yahya.

The attack on Tina has compounded the town’s already dire humanitarian situation, as it struggles to cope with the massive influx of displaced people following the RSF’s takeover of Fasher, the military source said.

Kornoy, also near the Chadian border, was shelled on Monday, specifically targeting the children’s hospital that had taken in a large number of sick children displaced from Fasher, a source in the Sudan Doctors Network said. Seven people were killed.

The Kornoy children’s hospital after RSF shelling, November 3. Courtesy of military-aligned media channel @sport6780 on Telegram.

Satellite images by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab in early November show evidence of at least two mass graves inside Fasher, as well as a new checkpoint on the road to Tawila where it is suspected the RSF is detaining displaced people leaving Fasher.

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RSF begins withdrawing troops from inside Fasher, hands it over to “federal police”

In Darfur, the military situation on the ground has changed little since the RSF seized control of Fasher.

An RSF source told Mada Masr that large numbers of troops had been redeployed outside Fasher to divert the military’s air force, which they said bombed the city on October 27.

On Saturday, the RSF announced that it began withdrawing its forces from Fasher and was handing over responsibility for securing the city to the “federal police.” 

“The process will be completed in the coming days,” the RSF spokesperson said. “We are leaving the city to the police, civil society organizations, regional and international humanitarian agencies and all the charitable people providing assistance to those affected by the war.”

Much of the military’s war planning had focused on reaching Fasher through known routes to lift the siege, a senior military officer told Mada Masr, but now the large military forces massed in Northern and North Kordofan states could pursue “new operational plans and objectives.”

Armed movements allied with the military, he said, are expected to soon engage in guerrilla operations — with military backing — to exhaust RSF forces and undermine their presence in Darfur’s cities. These groups, the officer noted, are well-suited for such warfare and possess extensive experience navigating desert terrain.

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Kordofan fronts rage

 White Nile Special Forces sending new reinforcements to the operational areas in Kordofan, November 4. Courtesy of Altabia Sudanese News Network on Facebook.

With the fall of Fasher marking the military’s loss of Darfur, the full weight of Sudan’s battle has now shifted to Kordofan. There, the military is scrambling to fortify its position — politically and militarily — while the RSF capitalizes on its recent decisive gains.

In a series of attacks over the past week, the RSF sought to isolate and encircle Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, by seizing several southwestern areas and cutting off the Rahad road.

The RSF repositioned its troops in Kordofan in parallel to its days-long offensive in Fasher that saw its fall, and continued in the days that followed. 

A field source in the military told Mada Masr that on October 26, the RSF attacked the Um Bashar area, west of Rahad, with more than 70 combat vehicles and 90 motorcycles carrying heavily armed fighters. Military forces managed to repel the assault, inflicting significant losses in personnel and equipment, including dozens of dead and wounded RSF fighters, the destruction of several combat vehicles and the capture of seven motorcycles.

On Tuesday, the military regained control of Jabal al-Hashaba, southwest of Obeid, only hours after the RSF had seized it in a surprise attack, a source from the General Intelligence Service told Mada Masr. Two RSF combat vehicles and a 23mm cannon were destroyed.

The RSF remains entrenched in several areas surrounding Obeid — most notably to the west, on the outskirts of Um Samima, and to the south in Kazgil. 

After taking control of the strategic city of Bara, north of Obeid, on October 25, the RSF also expanded its presence eastward, establishing new positions in Zereiba in the Um Dam Haj Ahmed area on October 27.

A senior figure in the village told Mada Masr that the RSF withdrew from the area after capturing it, leaving behind only small outposts on its outskirts. Most of the area’s residents have fled, the source said.

A source in the military-allied Sudan Shield Forces said their troops sent reinforcements to the battlefronts near Bara, noting that military drones have recently been undermining RSF defenses and targeting the main troop concentrations with repeated airstrikes.

The Air Force conducted multiple sorties Thursday through Saturday over several areas in North and West Kordofan, striking RSF gatherings and positions in Bara, Khawi, Abu Zabad and Nuhud, a military source told Mada Masr. The attacks killed and wounded dozens of RSF fighters and destroyed combat vehicles and jamming systems.

The escalation in Kordofan has exacted a growing toll on civilians.

In South Kordofan, seven civilians were killed and others injured on Saturday when an RSF drone strike hit a shelter for displaced persons in the Abbasiya Tagali area, according to a former official in the state. Women and children were among the dead, and several civilians sustained serious injuries, they said.

A day earlier, on Friday, the RSF bombed a camp for displaced persons that previously served as an International Organization for Migration (IOM) office in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan. A medical source told Mada Masr that the attack killed five people, including children, and wounded several others.

Mohamed Refaat, head of the IOM mission in Sudan, expressed deep concern over the attack. “We received distressing reports indicating that the organization’s former office, which had been converted into a temporary shelter for displaced families, was targeted by drones,” he said in a press statement. “This is a painful reminder that the suffering of civilians must end. Their safety and protection must remain paramount.”

Kadugli continues to face dire humanitarian conditions under a siege imposed by the RSF and its ally, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu. Famine was declared in the city on Tuesday, as well as in Fasher.

The global authority on food insecurity also warned that 20 additional areas across Kordofan and Darfur are at risk of famine, including several new locations in South Kordofan and East Darfur.

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300 killed in Bara as RSF takeover triggers mass displacement

The RSF killed over 300 civilians in Bara since recapturing the city in late October, with 40,000 residents forced to flee the city and surrounding villages amid worsening humanitarian conditions, medical and government sources told Mada Masr.

The medical source in the Sudan Doctors Network said that, according to field reports received by the network, RSF forces prevented the burial of dozens of bodies piled inside homes across the city, “leaving the dead trapped in their homes and the living surrounded by fear, hunger and thirst.” 

The number of missing persons continues to rise daily amid a total communications blackout and the complete absence of medical or humanitarian assistance in the city, according to the source.

A source at the North Kordofan State secretariat said waves of mass displacement continue under extremely harsh conditions, with civilians fleeing on foot toward Obeid without access to food, medicine or shelter. 

Health services have collapsed entirely, as disease and malnutrition spread rapidly among children, women and the elderly in and around Bara, according to the source.

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Foreign Ministry undersecretary dismissed, govt denies link to WFP expulsions

The Foreign Ministry dismissed its acting undersecretary Hussein al-Amin, following his announcement last week of the expulsion of the World Food Programme’s (WFP) top officials in Sudan.

Amin had declared WFP’s country director in Khartoum Laurent Bukera and head of operations Samantha Katrag personas non grata, ordering them to leave Sudan within 72 hours.

A source at the premiership told Mada Masr that Amin’s decision had not been coordinated with either the Foreign Ministry or the Cabinet, provoking anger within the prime minister’s office and personal frustration from Prime Minister Kamel Idris, who was informed only after the fact.

According to the source, the decision originated from the TSC, which oversees the file on humanitarian organizations through Lieutenant General Al-Sadig Ismail, the TSC chair’s advisor on humanitarian affairs and head of the national high committee for humanitarian emergencies who requested the expulsions.

The decision, the source said, stemmed from growing tensions between the WFP and the TSC after the agency allowed aid trucks to enter through the Adre border crossing from Chad. The government objected, arguing that the security situation did not permit convoys to pass at that time, particularly as military operations were underway to target RSF smuggling routes used for weapons and ammunition. The TSC previously voiced displeasure over the use of the Adre crossing by the RSF to bring in logistical supplies, coinciding with WFP truck movements, according to the source.

In a statement to the press, however, Amin  said the expulsions came with “full coordination with all state institutions,” and did not signal an end to cooperation with the UN agency.

The WFP expressed its deep concern over the decision, warning of its impact on humanitarian operations at a time when more than 24 million Sudanese face severe food insecurity. The organization said the expulsions would force it to make emergency leadership changes, risking disruption to vital relief efforts. The United Nations said that it was engaging with Sudanese authorities to protest the decision and seek clarification over its motives.

The government denied reports of internal tensions within the Foreign Ministry following Amin’s dismissal.

Two sources at the ministry told Mada Masr that there is no internal crisis, while Foreign Ministry spokesperson Gamal Malek said that recent media reports were “inaccurate.” He stressed that decisions within the ministry are made “in accordance with established institutional procedures,” denying any link between Amin’s dismissal and the expulsion of UN staff.

Finance Minister and Justice and Equality Movement leader Gibril Ibrahim also weighed in last week, accusing international organizations of failing to deliver humanitarian aid and warning that the action against WFP officials “is only the beginning.” An informed source in the movement told Mada Masr that Ibrahim believes UN agencies in Sudan, despite their efforts, are engaged in “political deception” through some of their personnel.

A former diplomat said the move puts a lot of pressure on the ministry, as it is the sixth leadership change at its top level.