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Ahmed Abubakr Imam armed himself with a rifle to defend his community in January 2024.

As Sudan’s sprawling western region of Darfur advanced in its war against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its allies, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) advanced by capturing four of its five provinces in a lightning strike.

Taus of people were terrified as a result of the threat to capture North Darfur, including Imam.

He was aware of the notoriously nomadic RSF, which abducted and raped women and girls and extrajudicially murdered men and boys from largely sedentary “non-Arab” communities.

Imam joined the Popular Resistance, a group of neighborhood defense fighters supported by the SAF, like thousands of other non-Arabs in North Darfur.

According to the 27-year-old, “the RSF militia clearly doesn’t distinguish between fighters and civilians.”

Nowhere to go

Since the SAF and the RSF started a full-fledged civil war in April 2023, the latter has almost consolidated control of Darfur, a country that the latter has controlled for years.

According to UN experts and local and international monitors, both sides have committed grave abuses, but the RSF is linked to genocide and systematic sexual violence.

Around 260, 000 people are languishing and dying in el-Fasher, north of North Darfur, under a crippling siege that the RSF laid in April 2024.

Many women, children, and some men have managed to flee to Tawila, a town that is 45 miles (70 kilometers) east of where the devastating cholera epidemic is located.

Those fleeing El-Fasher must pay the equivalent of $300 each to RSF fighters in exchange for their jewelry and other items.

Residents claim that women and children have been kidnapped while men have frequently been detained and killed after the RSF has suspected them to be fighters.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to stay in El-Fasher as a result of these dangers until the RSF is overthrown or the city falls.

“All the civilians would have left El-Fasher by now,” Imam said to Al Jazeera, “if the militia RSF didn’t target civilians.”

Some, like Imam, are on the front lines, while others are attempting to document atrocities for the outside world by gathering food and supplies to feed their geriatric populations.

Imam is the oldest of a number of brothers and sisters, the youngest of whom is only three years old. He fears that if the RSF travels to them, they could all be raped or killed.

He said, “I have a responsibility to protect my family because I’m the oldest sibling.”

Al Jazeera addressed written inquiries to the RSF’s press office informing them of its opposition to claims that it targets civilians fleeing El-Fasher. Before publication, the RSF did not respond.

“Kill box”

The RSF is now making it nearly impossible for people to leave the city, even if they want to, according to the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, which uses satellite imagery to monitor developments in North Darfur.

The research team discovered that the RSF has constructed about 31 kilometers (19 miles) of desert berms (barriers) around El-Fasher on August 28.

A semicircle formed by about 22 kilometers (13. 6 miles) from the city’s west to its north, and an additional nine kilometers (9 miles) prevent any attempt to escape east.

According to the Yale report, “RSF is actually building a kill box around El-Fasher with these berms.”

The desert berms, according to journalist Mohamed Zakaria in El-Fasher, are about 3 meters high.

He claimed that all other roads out of El-Fasher have been blocked and that no one can climb the walls without getting them pulled up.

Additionally, he emphasized that residents of the displacement camp in Abu Shouk, northwest of El-Fasher, are deciding whether to stay and face an éventuel RSF attack or to leave knowing the risks.

Around 190,000 camp members have already fled, according to local monitors, according to Al Jazeera, and roughly 80% of them have gone to Tawila or El-Fasher.

People attempting to flee the state-backed “Arab” Janjaweed militias that terrorized non-Arab communities during the first Darfur war in 2003 were able to find housing at Abu Shouk. Many of these militias were later reorganized into the RSF.

In a larger attack that resulted in the deaths of dozens of people, the UN accused the RSF of immediately executing 16 men from Abu Shouk on August 22.

Following the RSF’s April attack on Zamzam camp, south of el-Fasher, which uprooted half a million people and killed more than a thousand, Abu Shouk’s assault is now in progress.

According to Zakaria, “artillery are] shelling Abu Shouk from every direction; they are also carrying out incursions and kidnapping campaigns.”

He told Al Jazeera, “Abu Shouk is the same scenario that happened in Zamzam.”

Starvation

According to UN agencies and local relief volunteers, the RSF’s chokehold siege on El-Fasher is also adding to the city’s natural starvation.

Food stocks are almost entirely exhausted, and drones have recently attacked food convoys, according to the UN.

Families typically rely on tree leaves or a local “ambaz,” an animal feed that is made by pressing the leftovers from peanut and sunflower seeds into a slurry to be consumed.

Even ambaz is starting to run out, warns Magdy Yousef, a resident of El-Fasher and a member of the Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs), a grassroots initiative that offers assistance to beleaguered civilians.

Yousef claimed that ERRs volunteers are attempting to buy food, operate neighborhood kitchens, and distribute medicine to the city’s most vulnerable residents. Most people can only eat one meal per day at best.

El-Fasher has only five community kitchens, each serving a meal to just 3, 000 people, according to Yousef.

He continued, “We are on the verge of famine.”

Yousef claimed that some families, including those who are elderly, children, and women, are risking their lives every day in El-Fasher because of the extreme hunger there.

He made it clear that men of fighting age, like himself, are too vulnerable to try to flee.

Most young men who leave the city are staying put despite the hunger and starvation [in El-Fasher], according to Yousef, because the RSF is targeting them all.

Who: France vs. Ukraine
What: UEFA qualifiers for 2026 FIFA World Cup
Where: Tarczynski Arena Wroclaw in Wroclaw, Poland
When: Friday, September 5, at 8:45pm (19:45 GMT)

Following is how we’ll prepare for our live text commentary stream on Al Jazeera Sport starting at 5:30 p.m. (16:45 GMT).

The next two weeks of 11-weeks of preparation for the 2026 World Cup will be the focus of European football, with each game involving six games each helping determine who will win.

54 teams are participating in the European qualifying program, but 24 of them are just making their first kickoff on the first day of action on the biggest stage of football, the United States, Canada, and Mexico, which will start the following year on June 11.

Les Bleus’ first game of the competition since losing an epic final to Argentina in December 2022 at the Qatar World Cup, France, the 2018 World Cup winner, kicks off its qualifying campaign for the 2026 edition against Ukraine.

Al Jazeera Sport examines the matchup between Ukraine and France and explains why so many teams are preparing to play until 2020.

Why is Poland hosting the Ukraine vs. France game?

Due to security concerns raised by the Russian military invasion, Ukraine will host the game in neutral Poland, Wroclaw.

FIFA and UEFA forbade Russia’s teams from competing in all international competitions in February 2022, the year the conflict broke out.

Why has France not yet qualified for the World Cup?

Due to the success of some of the top seeds in the 2025 Nations League, which culminated in June, France and 23 other teams are only currently enrolled in the World Cup qualifying program.

Portugal won the tournament’s 2025 final against Spain, winning 5-3 on penalties in the final.

Portugal defeated Germany in the semifinal while Spain defeated France. The rest of the qualifiers for the later stages of that competition are currently only qualifying for the World Cup.

Who else belongs to the group in Ukraine and France?

The UEFA World Cup Qualifiers’ Group D is completed by Iceland and Azerbaijan.

How do France, Portugal, and the other teams that are now enlisting in the qualifiers operate?

In preparation for the 2026 World Cup, five teams from each of the six groups are currently participating. There have already been four games played.

Each of the remaining six groups, which now includes four teams, are now in contention.

The 12 runners-up advance to the playoffs, where they will face the four best-placed Nations League teams that are currently in contention, while the top 12 teams advance directly to the finals of the summer.

Click here for a detailed explanation of the format of the playoffs’ format in our preview of Wednesday’s opening set of qualifying games.

What does France think about enlisting in the qualification right away?

Jules Kounde, a France defender, has demanded that football’s increasingly congested calendar be revised. He warns that the sport’s excessive schedule is having an impact on both players and the wider ecosystem.

Kounde said the unbroken pace of the games was weighing on ahead of France’s games against Ukraine and Iceland, which France hosts on Wednesday in Paris.

He asserted that “it’s not just about the players.” Families exist there. I also consider all the workers who frequently fall victim to this unflagging pace in the field of football.

Kounde, a Barcelona player, did not participate in this year’s expanded FIFA Club World Cup, which took place in the United States on June 14 and 14, but the 26-year-old did make some hints about how the event might affect the already packed season.

Rayan Cherki of Manchester City and William Saliba of Arsenal both have injured themselves, and Ousmane Dembele of Paris Saint-Germain missed Tuesday’s training due to a thigh injury.

In the 2024-2025 season, PSG played 65 games and reached the Club World Cup final.

He claimed that the ecosystem is “a whole”.

“Sometimes in life, we stop appreciating things when we overdo them,” said the author. We no longer give it the same importance as when we see too much. Football is experiencing overconsumption, according to the statement.

63 matches were added to the summer schedule thanks to the 32-team Club World Cup, which was met with criticism from the teams and the teams due to the increased workload.

Kounde urged football’s governing bodies to consider the current model’s long-term viability.

He said, “These are things that we need to put into perspective.” And I believe there must be some changes.

Head-to-head

France has won six games against the nations in their 13th meeting, while Ukraine only has once.

What took place during the most recent Ukraine-France game?

The last time the two teams met in a World Cup qualifier was in Kyiv in September 2021, when the game ended 1-1 draw.

Anthony Martial levelled for the French after Mykola Shaparenko gave the hosts the lead.

In Paris, the group’s reverse match ended in a 1-1 draw.

news from the Ukraine team

Anatoliy Trubin begins in goal after Real Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin is injured.

Oleksandr Tymchyk, a late starter due to a knock, is now out of the squad.

News from the France team

In Sunday’s defeat at Liverpool, Arsenal’s defender Saliba injured his right calf.

Cherki, who was replaced by Eintract Frankfurt’s Hugo Ekitike, also had to be forced to leave.

Dembele is anticipated to recover from his thigh issue.

Ukraine might start.

Trubin, Konoplya, Zabarnyi, Matviienko, Mykolenko, Kaliuzhny, Zinchenko, Tsygankov, Shaparenko, Sudakov, Dovbyk, and others

Possible starting lineup for France

The worst flooding in Pakistan’s Punjab province in decades hasdisplaced more than 1.5 million people. While many people are still stranded or have sought shelter elsewhere, tens of thousands are staying in makeshift relief camps.