BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.

Hello and welcome to the programme.

This is News Hour from the BBC World Service, and we're coming to you live from London.

My name's Paul Henley.

In a moment, we'll be hearing from inside the besieged city of Alfasha in Sudan, one of the

centres of conflict in the country's ongoing civil war. It's been surrounded by the rapid

support forces for over 17 months, with people trapped inside facing growing starvation.

That's our main story today. Also on the program, we'll hear from Garzans who are still

waiting for permission to leave for urgent medical treatment abroad as the Rafa border crossing

with Egypt remains shut despite a ceasefire deal.

We can't lose him. We already lost our father, our home and our dreams.

When the ceasefire happened, it gave us a bit of hope that maybe there was a one-person chance that Ahmed could travel and get treated.

And there is new evidence about Napoleon's retreat from Moscow and the diseases that killed tens of thousands of his men.

More on that later.

First, as the civil war in Sudan in the northeast of Africa rages on,

aid organisations in the besieged city of Elfasha are making a desperate appeal for aid corridors to be opened up

to save the lives

of a quarter of a million people trapped there.

Half of those worst affected are children.

The Sudan Doctors Network says there is widespread starvation,

after troops from the rapid support forces at war with the Sudanese army,

surrounded Elfascia with earthworks and cut off all

...