Updates from the field
What You Need to Know About the Crisis in El Fasher
A tragedy is unfolding in Darfur
October 29, 2025 | by Charmaine Hedding
Sudan’s Darfur region has been facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Since fighting broke out in April 2023, markets have collapsed, millions have been displaced, and over 25 million people now face severe hunger.
For over two years, Shai Fund has worked with trusted local church networks to deliver emergency food aid, shelter, and medicine to people across Darfur to reach remote areas cut off by violence and facing famine.
Now, the violence has escalated beyond belief.
El Fasher Falls
The city of El Fasher, the last major urban center in Darfur not under militia control, has fallen to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the group once known locally as the Janjaweed, meaning “the devil rides on horseback.”
The RSF has carried out house-to-house executions, revenge killings, and massacres of civilians targeting ethnic and religious minorities. Satellite imagery shows mass graves and trench-like formations. Thousands are fleeing through the desert on foot or in overloaded trucks, many dying along the way.
Shai Fund’s contacts on the ground describe unimaginable horrors: “Thousands have been killed within days. Many believers are hiding in underground caves. Some have been captured for ransom; others executed in groups. There is no food left — even traders were killed. The scene is too terrible to describe. Yet we have not lost hope in Christ.”
Another local pastor shared at least three Christians were killed in El Fasher, but the number may be higher with many still missing. There were more than 350 Christian families there.
“Millions of people have fled the hell of war in Darfur,” a pastor in the local underground church network remarked. “They are displaced and facing severe shortages of food, medicine, and shelter. Children are suffering from malnutrition, mothers are powerless to save their little ones from death, and countless families have lost their fathers. Thousands of minors have been separated from their parents.”
The Church Under Fire
Amid this violence, Darfur’s underground church continues to serve. Pastors and local leaders risk their lives to care for Christians and neighbors alike.
The pastor continued, “The support you are giving—it has changed their lives and their children’s lives. Not only Christians, but even the community has been blessed. This has created a positive picture of the church among Muslims; as a result, we are recording hundreds of Muslims leaving Islam and joining Christianity.”
Through Shai Fund’s local networks, emergency food, medicine, and shelter continue to reach families in need, and faith remains a source of hope amid profound suffering.
How to Stand with Darfur
The people of Darfur and the church in the region need our prayers:
- Pray for the Christians who are continuing to give aid and food to their neighbors, for protection, courage, and endurance.
- Pray for civilians trapped by violence, especially women, children, and the elderly.
- Pray for peace and justice to come to Sudan, and that the world does not turn away.
Even as international attention fades, local faith leaders continue to be the first responders — feeding the hungry, comforting the displaced, and offering hope in the darkest places.
Shai Fund continues to stand with them and shares their stories so these communities are not forgotten.
