KUALA LUMPUR – Once known for its rich culture and vast savannahs, Darfur today lies in ruins scarred by violence, famine, and fear.
Entire villages have been reduced to ashes. Hospitals stand empty. Mothers cradle their children not in safety, but in hunger and grief.
Malaysia has joined the growing global call for an immediate end to the atrocities in El Fasher and across Sudan’s Darfur region, where the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has unleashed one of the most brutal humanitarian crises of the 21st century.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim described the situation as a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ condemning reports of mass killings, deliberate starvation, and forced displacement that now stretch across the western and southern parts of Sudan.
“Reports of atrocities that may amount to crimes against humanity even ethnic cleansing are utterly unacceptable. Malaysia urges for the violence to cease immediately and for civilians to be fully protected under international humanitarian law.”
The war that erupted in April 2023 has turned Sudan into a battlefield without mercy. Once the heart of Africa’s agricultural economy, Darfur is now synonymous with burnt villages, hunger, and chaos.
According to the United Nations and International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 20,000 people have been killed, while 15 million others have been forced to flee their homes.
Over 1,200 residents were displaced from Bara and Umm Ruwaba in North Kordofan just this month alone, while hundreds fled from Al-Abbasiya and Delami in the south as airstrikes and ground assaults intensified.
Civilians who survived are now trapped between warring militias, cut off from aid as food supplies vanish and disease spreads. The UN warns that famine and cholera are looming threats yet humanitarian convoys are blocked, looted or bombed before they arrive.
El Fasher, once the capital of North Darfur and a centre of trade, is now a city under siege, surrounded by RSF fighters and littered with bodies, as hospitals struggle to treat the wounded without power, medicine or staff.
Malaysia’s stand clear and resolute echoes a universal truth: no political ambition, no military rivalry, and no border dispute can ever justify the slaughter of civilians.
Prime Minister Anwar called on the international community to act urgently: to end the violence, to reopen humanitarian corridors, and to restore hope for peace, justice, and accountability in Sudan.
“Malaysia stands in unwavering solidarity with the people of Sudan. The world cannot afford indifference.”
From Khartoum to El Fasher, the cry is the same stop the killing, protect the innocent, let the aid through.
The people of Darfur are not asking for power. They are asking for life. -MalayaDailyToday
