Tawila, May 13 (Darfur24)
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said thousands of displaced families who fled El Fasher to Tawila in North Darfur continue to endure harsh humanitarian conditions and uncertainty over the fate of missing relatives more than six months after their displacement.
In a statement, the committee said many families were separated during the fighting and chaotic attempts to escape El Fasher, with relatives still searching for loved ones who disappeared amid the conflict.
The ICRC shared testimonies from displaced people in Tawila, including Najwa Mohammed, who said she lost contact with her 17-year-old son after he returned to El Fasher to search for his father and has not heard from him since.
Another displaced woman, Zahra Hamed, said her family lost contact with her brother following the fall of El Fasher, amid conflicting reports that he may have been killed, captured, or forced to flee.
According to the committee, the number of missing persons cases registered in Sudan has surpassed 11,000, marking an increase of more than 40 percent over the past year as the war and displacement continue to spread.
The organization warned that women and children in displacement sites are facing severe hardship due to collapsing communication networks, shortages of food and clean water, and limited access to healthcare services.
Shereen Hanafia, head of the ICRC’s Restoring Family Links program in Sudan, said many families lost communication tools because of theft or network outages, making efforts to trace missing persons increasingly difficult.
The ICRC added that, in cooperation with the Sudanese Red Crescent Society, it facilitated more than 80,000 phone calls inside Sudan and with neighboring countries during the first three months of 2026 to reconnect separated family members.
The committee called on all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law, protect civilians, and allow humanitarian access to areas affected by the fighting.