Death, disease and despair as fighting closes in on besieged Sudanese city

A woman and baby at the Zamzam camp south of El Fasher. Photograph: Mohamed Zakaria/Reuters

At the Abu Shouk camp for displaced people on the northern fringe of El Fasher in North Darfur, about seven people a day arrive with injuries sustained from nearby clashes between fighters from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and groups allied to the Sudanese army.

For months now the RSF have been besieging El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, trapping a million people in the last major population centre in Sudan’s vast Darfur region not under paramilitary control.