When it was revealed that his hometown of El-Fasher, Mohammed Zakaria, had fallen under the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, he had not slept in two days.
The paramilitary seized the North Darfur governor’s office on Friday, edging closer to taking control of the entire city, as the Sudanese video journalist and human rights activist had been monitoring the deteriorating situation from Kampala, Uganda.
He was afraid of the worst.
The “nightmare” scenario is very personal to Zakaria. He discovered footage posted on Facebook by RSF soldiers standing over dead bodies after the city’s fall through social media. He identified three of his uncles as deceased.
He claimed that they are killing them to celebrate.
He claimed a chilling message about his potential fate had been added to the profile photo of another uncle, who was an RSF fighter.
He said, “We don’t know where he is, but we’re terrified of him.”
El-Fasher’s demise
After an 18-month siege, the Sudanese army confirmed its withdrawal from what had been its final outpost in the Darfur region, which had been held there for months by the determined fighters there. The city fell to the RSF on Sunday.
El-Fasher’s capture marks a significant turning point for Sudan’s civil war, giving the paramilitary complete control over all five state capitals there.
One of the longest urban sieges ever to occur in modern warfare took place in El-Fasher. After being driven out of Khartoum by the army in March, the RSF began encircling it in May 2024 and mounted its assaults on it even more.
International observers have labeled the events that followed its fall as an unprecedented massacre, with satellite imagery and social media footage indicating widespread atrocities committed by RSF fighters, allegedly along ethnic lines.
“This has been the subject of conversation for more than a year. Zakaria broke his voice, telling Al Jazeera, “We knew this would happen.”
Former UN Security Council expert on Sudan, Sarra Majdoub, claimed that Sudan’s observers had warned about the city’s fall for months and that other significant urban areas in Darfur had been captured by the RSF, but “they surprisingly held on for a really long time.”
People with loved ones are anxious and uncertain because of a communications blackout, which has almost stopped communication with the city.
When the city fell, an estimated 260 000 civilians remained trapped in the city, half of whom were children.
In el-Fasher, according to the Sudan Doctors Network, a “heinous massacre” was carried out, while 2, 000 people were executed by the Joint Forces, a coalition of armed rebel groups affiliated with the Sudanese army. 1, 350 deaths were documented by the UN, according to the report.
reports of atrocities
The Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health, which tracks the conflict in Sudan, reported on Tuesday that satellite imagery revealed evidence of widespread mass killings, including what appear to be bloody pools and corpse clusters.
The killings, according to executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab, were “only comparable to Rwanda-style killings,” according to Nathaniel Raymond, who made the remarks during a press briefing on Tuesday.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk issued a warning about the possibility of “large-scale, ethnically motivated attacks and atrocities” as of October 2, urging immediate action to stop them.
Following the fall of the city, Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency found numerous instances of RSF fighters carrying out summary civilian executions. An RSF commander boasted that he had killed 2, 000 people in one video.
The RSF stated in a statement on Monday that it was “protecting civilians.”
According to Majdoub, one of the “most disturbing elements” of the violence was the voyeuristic nature of the videos that RSF fighters recorded.
She recalled that fighters who had previously filmed abuses in locations like El-Geneina in West Darfur and Gezira state had “been there before, and their violence is more exaggerated.”
Finding videos on social media, Zakaria said, “finding someone who is a friend, a distant relative, an uncle, surrounded by RSF fighters, and it is very painful.”
“This is a reality for many people right now.”
He is still unable to locate numerous friends and family members.
Dr. Mudathir Ibrahim Suleiman, the medical director of Saudi Hospital, was one of the people Zakaria last spoke to shortly before the RSF stormed the city.
Zakaria said, “He told me he would leave with a group of doctors.” We discovered that some doctors had reached Tawila, but Dr. Mudathir is not one of them, so I haven’t heard anything until now.
460 people were killed in a massacre at the Saudi Hospital, according to Minni Minnawi, the governor of Darfur. Additionally, he uploaded video to X that depicts a quick execution.
Residents who spoke to Al Jazeera about daily bombardments and frequent drone strikes in the weeks leading up to the final offensive spoke to Al Jazeera. As shelling began at dawn, people dug trenches to conceal themselves, sometimes staying underground for hours.
More than 26, 000 people have fled the fighting since Sunday, according to the UN migration agency, either by emigrants trying to get to Tawila, which is 70 kilometers (43 miles) west or by foot.
Genocide is occurring right now.
Zakaria fled El-Fasher in June 2024 while the country was under siege, making the risky journey through South Sudan to Uganda after his house was shelled and he witnessed a deadly attack close to his grandfather’s house, where seven people, including women and children, were killed.
He said, “It was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make in my life, to leave my city.”
He stayed in Kampala, monitoring the violence, and making human rights claims.
El-Fasher claimed that while humanitarian organizations were based in Tawila, which was only three hours by car from there, they had been requesting assistance for more than 17 months.
The time has come for action to end. He claimed that there is currently a genocide.
Zakaria claims that in El-Fasher, more than 100 people are still missing.
