Over 60,000 Flee Sudanese City After Capture by Rapid Support Forces Militia, UN Reports
As stated by the UN refugee agency, over 60,000 civilians have left the city in Sudan of el-Fasher, which was captured by the militia RSF over the weekend.
Reports indicate multiple executions and human rights violations as paramilitary forces stormed the city following an extended blockade characterized by famine and sustained attacks.
The movement of those escaping the violence towards the town of Tawila, approximately 80km (50 miles) west of el-Fasher, had grown in the past few days, according to UNHCR spokesperson.
Survivors were narrating terrible tales of atrocities, such as sexual violence, and the humanitarian group was finding it difficult to secure sufficient shelter and nourishment for them.
Each child was affected by undernourishment, she noted.
Calculations indicate that over 150,000 individuals are currently unable to leave in el-Fasher, which had been the military's last bastion in the western part of Darfur.
The Rapid Support Forces has denied widespread allegations that the deaths in el-Fasher are driven by ethnicity and mirror a pattern of the Arab paramilitaries targeting ethnic minorities.
However the paramilitary group has detained one of its fighters, Abu Lulu, who has been implicated in extrajudicial killings.
The organization released video revealing the militiaman's detention following identification that he was responsible for the death of numerous non-combatants near el-Fasher.
Video sharing service has acknowledged that it has suspended the profile linked to Lulu. It is not clear whether he had operated the account in his identity.
Sudan was entered a civil war in April 2023 after a vicious contest for control erupted between its military and the Rapid Support Forces.
It has resulted in a food crisis and claims of mass killing in the western Darfur region.
In excess of 150,000 individuals have died in the conflict around the country, and about 12 million have abandoned their residences in what the UN has described as the biggest global humanitarian crisis.
The seizure of el-Fasher solidifies the geographic split in the country, with the Rapid Support Forces now in control of Sudan's west and much of adjacent Kordofan to the southern area, and the army controlling the capital, Khartoum, the center and east along the Red Sea.
The opposing sides had been collaborators - coming to power together in a seizure of power in 2021 - but split over an internationally backed initiative to advance to civilian rule.
