In the remote village of Ammar Jadid in the western reaches of Darfur in Sudan, the land once sustained an entire region. The fertile fields surrounding the settlement produced staple crops such as corn and millet that nourished not only the farming families who lived there but also the nearby city of El Fasher located roughly twenty miles away. These fields were not simply agricultural plots but the foundation of a regional food system that had quietly supported tens of thousands of people for generations. Today those fields are blackened, abandoned and scarred by fire after a series of violent assaults that experts now believe were not random acts of warfare but part of a deliberate strategy to starve entire civilian populations. Between March and June of 2024 the village of Ammar Jadid was attacked seven times. Armed fighters arrived repeatedly, burning homes, destroying crops and driving farmers from their land. The consequences were immediate and devastating. Agricultural activity collapsed, livestock enclosures were destroyed and the families who had depended upon these fields for survival fled in search of safety. What had once been a functioning agricultural community became a scorched landscape where survival itself was no longer possible.
For observers familiar with the long and violent history of Darfur, the destruction of such villages carries a grim sense of continuity. Since the early 2000s the region has endured waves of brutal violence linked to militia groups known collectively as the Janjaweed. These militias, drawn largely from Arab pastoralist communities competing with non Arab farming populations for land and resources, became infamous during the Darfur conflict when they carried out attacks widely condemned by international organisations as ethnic cleansing. During those earlier campaigns an estimated three hundred thousand people were killed in assaults that were widely believed to have been supported by the Sudanese government. Entire communities were uprooted and vast areas of farmland were abandoned.
Despite this history of violence the residents of villages such as Ammar Jadid continued to cultivate their land for decades, living under the constant threat that armed groups might again appear. Their persistence was rooted in necessity. Agriculture remained the only viable means of survival for these communities and abandoning their farms would have meant surrendering the very basis of life itself. For years the villagers endured the precarious balance between subsistence and insecurity. By the summer of 2024 that balance had collapsed. Satellite imagery now shows the once productive farmland around Ammar Jadid transformed into a landscape of burned earth and abandoned homes. This devastation is widely attributed to the actions of the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary organisation that emerged from the same Janjaweed militias responsible for earlier atrocities in Darfur. The RSF has since evolved into one of the most formidable armed groups in Sudan and is currently engaged in a brutal war with the national armed forces of the country. At the time of the attacks the RSF controlled much of Darfur and had begun focusing its military efforts on the strategic city of El Fasher. Evidence gathered by researchers indicates that the destruction of surrounding farming communities was not incidental but rather part of a calculated plan to weaken the city before laying siege to it. According to investigations conducted by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, at least forty one farming villages across the region were attacked between March and June 2024. These assaults occurred in the months leading up to the siege of El Fasher, which began at the end of April 2024 and continued for eighteen months until October 2025.
Researchers believe that the systematic destruction of agricultural communities was designed to sever El Fasher from the rural areas that supplied it with food. By eliminating the agricultural infrastructure surrounding the city the RSF effectively removed the economic and nutritional lifeline that sustained its population. The consequences were swift and devastating. By September 2024 many villages that had survived decades of tension and sporadic violence were entirely abandoned. Farming ceased, livestock disappeared and the land fell into neglect. Satellite images reveal vegetation spreading across former settlements where homes and farmland once stood, silent testimony to communities that no longer exist.
The implications of this strategy have alarmed legal scholars and human rights investigators who view the evidence as indicative of a war crime. Under international humanitarian law the deliberate use of starvation against civilian populations constitutes a prohibited method of warfare. Experts argue that the pattern of attacks observed in northern Darfur strongly suggests that the RSF intentionally destroyed the means through which local populations produced food, thereby pushing already vulnerable communities toward famine. Among the most prominent voices analysing this evidence is Tom Dannenbaum, a professor at Stanford Law School who specialises in the legal implications of starvation as a weapon of war. In a detailed legal analysis published alongside research findings, Dannenbaum argues that the destruction of villages, agricultural equipment and livestock enclosures represents compelling evidence that a deliberate starvation strategy was implemented against populations already suffering from severe food insecurity. He emphasises that the evidence goes beyond the mere fact that villages were attacked. Instead it reveals a pattern of targeted destruction directed specifically at objects indispensable to civilian survival.
Dannenbaum’s analysis was conducted in collaboration with Oona Hathaway of Yale Law School, whose research into international law has focused extensively on the mechanisms used to prosecute war crimes. Both scholars regard the findings of the Humanitarian Research Lab as a major breakthrough in efforts to document and prove the deliberate use of starvation tactics in modern warfare. Their assessment highlights the role of advanced remote sensing technologies in gathering evidence that could eventually be presented in international courts.
The research relied upon satellite imagery and sensors capable of detecting fires across large geographic areas. By analysing these data sets investigators were able to identify dramatic increases in fire activity across the targeted villages. During the period under examination the researchers recorded an increase in fires ranging from twenty to forty percent. Approximately a quarter of the villages were attacked multiple times, and in the aftermath of the assaults nearly sixty eight percent showed no signs of normal life returning. Satellite imagery also revealed vehicles near the scenes of destruction that matched those typically used by RSF fighters.
For legal scholars the significance of this evidence lies not only in what it reveals about the past but also in its potential to establish accountability. Hathaway notes that the level of detail contained within the analysis provides a precise chronological record of attacks and their consequences, allowing investigators to reconstruct the deliberate dismantling of the region’s food production system over time. Such evidence, she argues, could meet the evidentiary standards required for criminal prosecution in international tribunals. The possibility of future prosecutions is not theoretical. The International Criminal Court has been investigating allegations of genocide in Darfur since the early years of the conflict and continues to collect evidence relating to recent atrocities. The court has already issued calls for information concerning the violent takeover of El Geneina in West Darfur in June 2023, an operation in which RSF fighters imposed a prolonged siege that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians and the displacement of hundreds of thousands more from the Masalit community.
Investigations conducted by the United Nations Human Rights Council have also documented patterns of violence across the conflict. A report published recently concluded that the RSF assault on El Fasher bore the hallmarks of genocide, particularly in the manner in which siege conditions were imposed on communities identified as non Arab populations such as the Zaghawa and Fur peoples.
Further investigations have examined the attack on Zamzam displacement camp in April 2025. At the time the camp had become the largest displacement site in Sudan, hosting roughly seven hundred thousand people south of El Fasher. Reports described the assault as a genocidal attack that inflicted catastrophic harm on civilians already displaced by earlier waves of violence. Behind these statistics lie the experiences of individuals such as Yasser Abdul Latif, a teacher from the nearby village of Jughmar located just two miles south of Ammar Jadid. Before the war intensified Latif had been studying in El Fasher but returned home to help his family cultivate their land while waiting for the fighting to subside. His account illustrates how the escalation of violence unfolded with terrifying speed. According to Latif, armed raiders frequently approached the village on camels while gunmen in trucks followed close behind, creating a climate of intimidation that discouraged resistance. In March 2024 the situation deteriorated rapidly when smoke began rising from neighbouring villages. Reports soon arrived that the residents of Ammar Jadid had fled after attacks by RSF fighters. Later that afternoon the fighters reached Jughmar itself.
Latif recalls hearing gunfire as villagers ran in panic without understanding what was happening. During the assault he witnessed the killing of two men. One had attempted to defend his home while the other had been searching desperately for his family. The raid continued until sunset before the fighters moved on to other villages. Hours later they returned as residents were burying their dead, forcing survivors to flee toward the village of Golo where displaced families from Ammar Jadid and surrounding communities had already gathered.
The following day the destruction intensified. Latif describes how attackers systematically burned Ammar Jadid, Jughmar and numerous other villages across the region. The fires marked not only the destruction of homes but also the eradication of the agricultural infrastructure that sustained the local population.
Researchers believe these attacks were closely linked to the subsequent siege of El Fasher. According to Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, the pattern of village destruction reveals a deliberate effort to dismantle the agricultural network feeding the city. Raymond argues that the attackers effectively removed the breadbasket of El Fasher in order to starve its population during the siege. During the eighteen month blockade that followed, RSF forces reportedly prevented food, water and medical supplies from entering the city while constructing an earthen barrier stretching at least nineteen miles to prevent civilians from escaping. This tactic of isolating cities with significant non Arab populations has been observed elsewhere in Darfur where the RSF has imposed prolonged sieges before eventually seizing control. Today the RSF controls the principal cities of Darfur and continues to employ siege tactics in other regions where it confronts the Sudanese army. The conflict has recently expanded into the neighbouring region of Kordofan, an area rich in natural resources including gold, oil and gum arabic. Sudan produces approximately eighty percent of the world’s supply of gum arabic, an ingredient widely used in cosmetics and soft drinks.
The strategic importance of Kordofan has intensified fighting around the city of Kadugli, which together with El Fasher has been officially declared as experiencing famine conditions. In these areas the price of staple foods such as sorghum has risen by as much as one thousand percent compared with pre war levels.
In February the Sudanese army announced that it had broken a siege imposed on Kadugli that had prevented humanitarian aid from reaching the city. Yet violence continues to threaten relief efforts. On 20 February a convoy of aid trucks that had waited weeks for permission to reach Kadugli was struck by a drone attack that killed four people.
Credits: The Guardian
Meanwhile hunger is spreading in other regions including Blue Nile State in eastern Sudan where farmers have been unable to access their fields because of attacks attributed to RSF fighters. Crops have remained unharvested and food prices have surged dramatically. The advocacy group Avaaz reported that the price of flour alone rose forty three percent in January. For Raymond and other researchers the findings of the Humanitarian Research Lab represent more than documentation of past atrocities. They constitute what he describes as quantitative proof that the RSF has intentionally sought to deprive communities it perceives as hostile of the ability to feed themselves. In a conflict already marked by widespread displacement and famine conditions, the implications are chilling.
What has occurred in the villages surrounding El Fasher demonstrates how starvation can be engineered through the systematic destruction of agriculture, infrastructure and civilian livelihoods. It is a method of warfare that does not rely solely on bullets or bombs but instead weaponises hunger itself.
Unless international investigations translate this evidence into accountability, experts warn that the same strategy could be repeated across other regions of Sudan where vulnerable communities remain trapped between armed factions. The devastation of Ammar Jadid and the surrounding villages therefore stands not only as a record of past cruelty but also as a warning of what may yet come in a war that continues to consume the country’s people, its land and its future.