More than 60,000 Escape Sudanese City After Capture by RSF Paramilitary Group, UN Reports

Displaced people fleeing conflict in Sudan
Many seek to reach the town of Tawila but experience harassment, demands for money and abuse from fighters during their journey

According to the UNHCR, more than 60,000 people have escaped the city in Sudan of el-Fasher, which was captured by the paramilitary RSF during the weekend.

Accounts suggest summary killings and crimes against humanity as paramilitary forces entered the city following an 18-month siege featuring famine and intense shelling.

The movement of those escaping the fighting towards the town of Tawila, roughly 80km (50 miles) to the west of el-Fasher, had increased in the last several days, per United Nations refugee agency spokesperson.

Survivors were telling horrendous accounts of abuses, such as rape, and the humanitarian group was having trouble to locate adequate shelter and food for them.

All children was experiencing nutritional deficiencies, she commented.

Calculations indicate that in excess of 150,000 individuals are still unable to leave in el-Fasher, which had been the military's remaining fortress in the western region of Darfur.

The RSF has rejected broad accusations that the deaths in el-Fasher are ethnically motivated and follow a practice of the Arab militia groups focusing on ethnic minorities.

Yet the RSF has detained one of its fighters, Abu Lulu, who has been charged with summary executions.

The force released recordings showing the fighter's detention after identification that he was behind the killing of numerous unarmed men in the vicinity of el-Fasher.

Video sharing service has acknowledged that it has banned the account connected to Lulu. It is not clear whether he had managed the account in his identity.

Sudan was plunged into a civil war in April 2023 after a intense struggle for power began between its army and the RSF.

The conflict has caused a food crisis and claims of ethnic cleansing in the Darfur area.

In excess of 150,000 individuals have been killed in the fighting throughout the country, and about 12 million have left their dwellings in what the United Nations has called the world's largest humanitarian disaster.

The takeover of el-Fasher reinforces the territorial division in the country, with the Rapid Support Forces now in command of western Sudan and significant areas of adjacent Kordofan to the southern area, and the army controlling the capital, Khartoum, central and eastern areas along the Red Sea.

The two warring rivals had been collaborators - taking over together in a takeover in 2021 - but fell out over an globally supported proposal to advance to civilian rule.

Christopher Johnson
Christopher Johnson

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