Inside a dimly-lit storeroom in Tine’s central market, near the border of North Darfur and Chad, we are shown a haunting video.
Young men crouched on the ground and covered in sand stare up at a phone camera helplessly.
A loud male voice interrogates them and demands to know what they are smuggling into Al Fashir, the regional capital besieged by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
One responds with “rice” and another says “pasta”.
“I will swat all of you like flies,” the man says from behind the camera, before pointing his gun at each of their heads and feigning lethal headshots in a mock execution.
We are shown the clip by Ahmed* and Hassan*, who are using pseudonyms for their protection.
The young men in the video are just one of the many teams they coordinate to smuggle food and lifesaving supplies into Sudan‘s Al Fashir, where around 900,000 people are being forced into famine by an RSF blockade while being bombarded by deadly drone strikes and shelling.
The dangers of this work are extreme as smuggling routes rapidly open and close, and battles for control rage inside the city.
Some of the teams they send make it to Al Fashir, but many do not. The three men in the video are still missing and are feared dead.
“The situation in Al Fashir is catastrophic – you cannot afford to watch and do nothing,” says Ahmed in front of a stack of flour sacks piled up to the ceiling.
“We have no option but to offer what we can for people to eat and survive the shelling.”
Read more: Inside the epicentre of Sudan’s war
As we drive to the storeroom, their phones constantly ping with messages, voice notes and phone calls.
As Ahmed fires back a voice note requesting costings on bulk food items, Hassan brings his phone to his ear and listens.
He sighs with frustration and says: “We just received a message from HQ that one of our guys smuggling in insulin hasn’t arrived and was likely killed.
“He has been missing for three days. We have to count him among the dead.”
Hassan tells us they are being targeted by the RSF, adamant to uphold their siege.
“It happens a lot. Three days ago, we had a group of 12 people break up into three teams of four. Two of the teams arrived, but one group never surfaced.”
The number of dead is mounting and uncountable. They tell us they have lost 30 volunteers in the first week of September alone.
Their network of fearless first responders was born out of the resistance committees created to organise and assist targeted protesters during Sudan’s 2019 revolution.
Now, they carry the burden of feeding and treating war-impacted civilians across the country through the Nobel Peace Prize nominated Emergency Response Rooms.
The RSF are not just targeting these civilian volunteers but also aid convoys attempting to deliver food.
On 3 June, a World Food Programme (WFP)-UNICEF aid convoy approaching Al Fashir was attacked, with five convoy personnel being killed and several food trucks destroyed.
Last month, another WFP convoy approaching an RSF-held town, Mellit, was attacked, and three trucks were set on fire.
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Near a makeshift displacement shelter in Tine, 24 WFP trucks full of food are parked at a transshipment point under the sun.
The trucks will set off to towns in North Darfur that are controlled by the RSF: Mellit, Kutum and Korma.
Korma is only 43 miles from Al Fashir, but aid trucks will not brave facing the RSF by approaching the besieged capital.
WFP Sudan’s country director Laurent Bukera says: “For months, the UN has been trying to secure guarantees for a humanitarian pause allowing safe delivery to the city.
“We received clearances from the government of Sudan’s humanitarian aid commission to deliver aid into Al Fashir and are renewing these, but the RSF has yet to communicate support for a humanitarian pause.”
Volunteers call for aid airdrops
Hassan, Ahmed and other volunteers we met are calling for food air drops, similar to those in Gaza and South Sudan.
“We need safe humanitarian passage for the delivery of aid – by road or by air drop,” says Hassan. “That is the responsibility of the international community as a neutral entity that can navigate the belligerents.”
But navigating these belligerents has proven difficult for mediators and the United Nations.
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Since the start of the war in April 2023, there has not been a single humanitarian pause or ceasefire that would allow for the guaranteed safe passage of aid.
“We are exploring every option to get aid into Al Fashir,” says Mr Bukera. “Airdrops are up to 10 times more expensive and extremely risky due to high risk of drone strikes, anti-aircraft weapons and shelling in and around Al Fashir.
“Also with the absence of humanitarian pause, to date, no aircraft and pilot have been willing to take the risk.”
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Until a safe corridor for aid is established, Al Fashir’s young volunteers will continue to face death to get food to their besieged and bombarded relatives in friends inside the city.
“If we don’t do it – it’ll be a slow genocide. So, better to die trying,” says Hassan.
“We have no other option but to take these risks.”
