UN makes first visit to Sudan's el-Fasher since its fall, finding dire conditions

CAIRO (AP) — A U.N. humanitarian team visited el-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region for the first time since a paramilitary force overran the city in October, carrying out a rampage that is believed to have killed hundreds of people and sent most of the population fleeing.

The hours-long visit gave the U.N. its first glimpse into the city, which remains under control of the Rapid Support Forces. The team found hundreds of people still living there, lacking adequate access to food, medical supplies and proper shelter, the U.N. said Wednesday.

“It was a tense mission because we’re going into what we don’t know … into a massive crime scene,” Denise Brown, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, said of Friday’s visit.

For the past two months, el-Fasher has been nearly entirely cut off from the outside world, leaving aid groups unsure over how many people remained there and their situation. The death toll from the RSF takeover, which came after a more than a year-long siege, remains unknown.

Survivors among the more than 100,000 people who fled el-Fasher reported RSF fighters gunning down civilians in homes and in the streets, leaving the city littered with bodies. Satellite photos have since appeared to show RSF disposing of bodies in mass graves or by burning them.

Brown said “a lot of cleaning up" appeared to have taken place in the city over the past two months. The U.N. team visited the Saudi Hospital, where RSF fighters reportedly killed 460 patients and their companions during the takeover.

“The building is there, it’s clearly been cleaned up,” Brown said of the hospital. “But that doesn’t mean by any stretch of the imagination that this story has been wiped clean because the people who fled, fled with that story.”

El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, had been the last stronghold of the Sudanese military in the Darfur region until the RSF seized it. The RSF and the military have been at war since 2023 in a conflict that has seen multiple atrocities and pushed Sudan into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

The U.N. team visiting el-Fasher focused on identifying safe routes for humanitarian workers and conducted only an initial assessment on the situation on the ground, with more teams expected to enter, Brown said.

“Villages around el-Fasher appeared to be completely abandoned. We still believe that people are being detained and that there are people who are injured who need to be medically evacuated,” said Brown, citing the initial U.N. findings.

The exact number of people still living in the city is hard to determine, but Brown said they’re in the hundreds and they lack supplies, social services, some medications, education and enough food.

They are living in deserted buildings and in shelters they erected using plastic sheets, blankets and other items grabbed from their destroyed homes. Those places lack visible toilets and access to clean drinking water.

The first charity kitchen to operate since the city’s fall opened Tuesday in a school-turned- shelter, according to the Nyala branch of the local aid initiative Emergency Response Rooms (ERR). The charity kitchen will be operated by ERR Nyala, serving daily meals, food baskets, and shelter supplies. More community kitchens are expected to open across 16 displacement centers, sheltering at least 100 people.

The U.N. team found a small open market operating while they were in the city, selling limited local produce such as tomatoes and onions. Other food items were either unavailable or expensive, with the price of one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rice reaching as high as $100, Brown said.

Mohamed Elsheikh, spokesperson for the Sudan Doctors Network, told The Associated Press Wednesday that medical facilities and hospitals in el-Fasher are not operating in full capacity.

“El-Fasher has no sign of life, the healthcare system there is completely paralyzed. Hospitals barely have access to any medical aid or supplies,” he added.

Brown described the situation in el-Fasher as part of a “pattern of atrocities” in this war that is likely to continue in different areas.

The United States has accused the RSF of committing genocide in Darfur during the war, and rights groups said the paramilitaries committed war crimes during the siege and takeover of el-Fasher, as well as in the capture of other cities in Darfur. The military has also been accused of rights violations.

FILE - Sudanese refugee girls carry water supplies near a polling station in the refugee camp of Zamzam, on the outskirts of El Fasher, Darfur, Sudan, on April 13, 2010. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser, File)

U.S. stocks are slipping in early trading Wednesday as Wall Street closes out a banner year for markets driven by both optimism and uncertainty.

The S&P 500 was down 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 111 points, or 0.2%, as of 10:07 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.2%. The stock indexes are coming off a three-day losing streak.

Trading is expected to be light ahead of the New Year’s Day holiday, when markets will be closed. With just one trading day left before the year ends, most big investors have closed out their positions for the year and trading volume has been very thin.

Even after their mini post-Christmas pullback, the indexes are on pace for strong gains for the year.

The S&P 500 is up more than 17% this year, it’s third straight double-digit annual gain. The Nasdaq is up 21.3% and the Dow has gained 13.7%.

Wall Street’s 2025 gains came as investors embraced the optimism surrounding artificial intelligence and its potential for boosting profits across almost all sectors. But the market had no shortage of turbulence along the way amid President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs on imported goods worldwide and uncertainty over the trajectory of interest rates.

The S&P 500 plunged nearly 5% on April 3, it’s worst day since the 2020 COVID crash. It fell another 6% a day later, after China’s response raised fears of an escalating trade war. Worries also gripped the U.S. Treasury market.

Trump eventually put his tariffs on pause and negotiated agreements with countries to lower his proposed tariff rates on their imports, helping calm investors’ nerves.

Strong profit reports from companies and three cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve also helped drive markets higher.

Still, the AI frenzy that drove markets in 2025 did not come without concerns. Chief among them is the worry that artificial intelligence technology may not produce enough profits and productivity to make all the investment worth it. That could keep the pressure on AI stocks like Nvidia and Broadcom, which were responsible for much of the market’s gains this year.

And it’s not just AI stocks that critics say are too pricey. Stocks across the market still look expensive after their prices climbed faster than profits.

On top of concerns that stocks are overvalued, the ongoing impact of the wide-ranging U.S.-led trade war threatens to add more fuel to inflation in the U.S. Despite the Fed cutting rates over concerns about the labor market, inflation remains solidly above the central bank’s 2% target.

Wall Street is betting that the Fed will hold interest rates steady at its next meeting in January.

Traders got an update on the state of the job market Wednesday. The Labor Department reported that fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week with layoffs remaining low despite a weakening labor market.

Technology and communication services stocks were among the biggest weights of the market Wednesday.

Broadcom fell 1.1% and Micron Technology was 2% lower.

Treasury yields were mostly higher in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.14% from 4.13% late Tuesday. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which moves more closely with expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do, rose to 3.46% from 3.45%.

Trading in precious metals continued to be volatile as the year winds down. Silver swung back to a big loss, giving back more than 6% early Wednesday after Tuesday's gain of more than 10%. Following Friday's 7.7% jump, silver lost nearly 9% on Monday. It's still up more than 140% this year.

Gold was down 0.6%, but is still up 65% in 2025.

Elsewhere, global stock markets including Germany, Japan and South Korea were closed Wednesday for the New Year's holidays, while trading was mixed in those that remained open.

U.S. crude picked up 39 cents to $58.34 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 36 cents to $61.69 per barrel.

Hajime Moriyasu, the head coach of Japanese national soccer team, rings the bell during a ceremony to mark the last trading day of the year on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)