The European Union has begun flying emergency humanitarian supplies into Sudan’s Darfur region, launching what officials describe as an “air bridge” to reach civilians trapped by intensifying conflict, displacement and hunger.
The operation, announced Monday by the European Commission, will involve eight cargo flights delivering aid worth €3.5 million to western Sudan, where access by land has become increasingly dangerous and, in some areas, nearly impossible. The first aircraft departed late last week, carrying roughly 100 tonnes of supplies drawn from EU emergency stockpiles and humanitarian partners.
Water purification equipment, shelter materials, sanitation kits and basic health items are among the cargo being sent to Darfur, a region long scarred by violence and now facing what aid agencies describe as one of the world’s most severe humanitarian emergencies.
The urgency of the effort has been sharpened by the fall of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, which was seized by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in late October after a prolonged siege. The city had been the Sudanese army’s last stronghold in Darfur. Its capture, EU officials said, marked a decisive escalation in a crisis that was already catastrophic.
Residents who fled el-Fasher have described weeks of deprivation followed by waves of violence, including killings, abductions and widespread sexual assaults as fighters swept through neighbourhoods. More than 100,000 people escaped the city, many seeking refuge in the town of Tawila, which has since become overwhelmed by new arrivals.
Volker Türk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, has accused the RSF of committing “the gravest of crimes” in the region.
Sudan has been engulfed in war since April 2023, when a power struggle between the national army and the RSF erupted into open conflict. Fighting that began in the capital, Khartoum, has since fractured the country, spreading across vast swathes of territory.
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With Darfur now firmly under RSF control, attention has shifted eastward. The paramilitary and its allies are advancing into the Kordofan region, targeting key towns that sit along a strategic corridor linking South Sudan to Khartoum. United Nations officials have warned that Kordofan risks becoming the site of atrocities similar to those seen in Darfur.
In practical terms, Sudan is now split in two. The army controls much of the centre, north and east, while the RSF dominates the west and parts of the south. For civilians caught between front lines, the EU airlift offers a narrow but critical lifeline—one measured not in diplomacy, but in clean water, medicine and time.