streets full of corpses, broken up families, and survivors who had to travel for days without food or water. People who fled the western Sudanese city of El-Fasher after it fell to paramilitary forces a week ago after an asphyxiating 18-month siege have reacted in these reports.
A neutral force in the conflict has arrived in Tawila, a town west of El-Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur State, after Fatima Yahya has arrived. After three days of starvation, she remained traumatized. Her husband and uncle are unaccounted for. She struggled to put words to describe the memories of what transpired in El-Fasher.
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Yahya told Al Jazeera, “The dead bodies were everywhere: in the streets, inside houses, and at the gates of many homes.” “Wherever you are in El-Fasher, you will find dead bodies scattered.”
People who fled North Darfur’s capital after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary force fighting Sudan’s regular army, took control of the city on October 26 are one of several accounts. The Sudanese armed forces (SAF) were the only major city in Darfur under the RSF’s control, solidifying its hold over the vast western region.
Reports of widespread looting, sexual violence, and mass executions have risen since the city’s demise of el-Fasher, which was home to more than 1 million people before the war.
At least 31 locations in which objects resemble human bodies have appeared since the city’s capture have been identified through satellite imagery, according to Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, along with what researchers call reddish ground discoloration.
In the chaos, families were split up.
The initial fighting’s injuries made the journey for those who fled even more agonizing. Even though both of Farhat Said’s daughters were hurt in artillery fire before the RSF’s final assault on the city, they both died in the final assault. She claimed that her husband had to be abandoned because he had suffered a severe hip fracture as a result of the bombardment.
She told Al Jazeera, “We had to endure this for six to seven months while the shelling and bombardment were on us.” She continued, “It was difficult to move him at all.”
My son, who is 11 years old, requested that I flee home when the fighting got too bad and the shelling got too much,” she said. Even though her son is a male, the couple feared that he would not be able to cross RSF lines because he had to stay with his father.
Said’s husband would have had to travel by foot for two days, which involved “walking and even running” through RSF checkpoints. Without any money or items, the mother and daughter made their way to Tawila, which is about 40 kilometers west of El-Fasher. According to Said, her daughter still needs medical attention for her injuries.
Similar trauma struck Khadiga Abdalla, 46. She was also injured when the RSF bombardment happened a year ago and her husband was killed. Residents were forced to rely on what they could find to survive under the siege.
She told Al Jazeera, “We did not receive our regular food, the sorghum, for six months.” Because there was no other food in the el-Fasher, Abdalla claimed she was forced to consume ambaz, a residue left over from pressed oilseeds that are normally fed to livestock.
Abdalla and her two children arrived at Tawila after three days on the road without food. After witnessing the violence, one was immediately taken to the hospital and left with severe psychological trauma. While an uncle was killed in the shelling, her brother’s children are still unaccounted for.
These accounts complement more comprehensive evidence of systematic violence. At least 460 patients were killed in the RSF attacks on the Saudi maternity hospital in El-Fasher, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). According to WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier, health workers were also taken during the initial assault.
Those who reach safety face serious health issues. Doctors Without Borders medical teams in Tawila have screened the arrivals of children, reporting that all children under the age of five are affected by malnutrition.
The bodies of the survivors include torture, bullet wounds from their escapes, and digestive issues brought on by months of consuming livestock food.
fewer arrivals than anticipated
Since October 26th, according to the International Organization for Migration, more than 70 000 people have been displaced from El-Fasher and the surrounding areas. However, more than 652, 000 displaced people have been reportedly arrived in Tawila, which according to humanitarian workers, had arrived much less slowly than El-Fasher’s population would suggest.
In recent images, there were no obvious indications of a large exodus from El-Fasher, in contrast to previous RSF takeovers across Darfur, such as the April assault on the Zamzam displacement camp.
Researchers discovered hundreds of people and donkey carts on roads away from the camp when Zamzam’s estimated 500, 000 people fled. However, according to the Yale researchers, “The majority of civilians are dead, captured, or in hiding” is true with el-Fasher.
Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of Red Cross, described the situation as “horrific” and warned that tens of thousands of people could be trapped without access to food, water, or medical care.
International demands for accountability
In el-Fasher, Pope Leo XIV attacked “indiscriminate violence against women and children, attacks on unarmed civilians, and serious obstacles to humanitarian action,” which was condemned by the growing international community on Sunday.
He demanded the opening of humanitarian corridors and an immediate ceasefire.
Senators from both parties have urged more drastic action. The RSF should be officially designated as a “foreign terrorist organization,” according to Republican Senator Jim Risch, the committee’s chairman, who also referred to the violence as being planned rather than unintended.
A commander named Abu Lulu, who appeared in videos of executions that were verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency, was one of the RSF’s arrests.
Questions about accountability linger in the minds of survivors like Yahya, Said, and Abdalla, who are currently living in overcrowded displacement camps with little support.
Aid workers have found it difficult to shelter people and provide them with other essential supplies, according to Tawila camp activists who spoke to Al Jazeera.
