Thousands more people are still missing in western Sudan’s Darfur, while thousands more have escaped the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and told horrifying tales.
Before falling to the RSF after 18 months of siege on Sunday, North Darfur state’s capital was the last Sudanese army stronghold in the vast region.
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As evidence of widespread rape, rape, and other abuses continue to surface, the UN and international aid organizations have since raised the alarm about the fate of civilians.
Alkheir Ismail, a young Sudanese man who has fled to the town of Tawila, which is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) away, claimed to be one of 300 people who were obstructed by RSF fighters as they attempted to flee El-Fasher on Sunday. He continued, adding that one of the captors recognized him from his early school days, so the fighters only spared him.
A young man I studied with at the university in Khartoum said to them, “Don’t kill him.” The rest of the population, the youths who were with me and my friends, were then murdered.
Other Sudanese residents in Tawila also shared their fear after being stopped by fighters.
“All of a sudden, they showed up, from a source I’m not sure. Three young men of different ages showed up. They shot in the air and yelled, “Stop, stop!” According to Tahani Hassan, they were dressed like RSF members. They forcefully hit us. Our clothes were thrown onto the ground by them. Even I was searched as a woman. The attacker may not be my daughter’s age.
Fatima Abdulrahim, who fled with her children, claimed to have traveled to Tawila for five days in brutal conditions.
They beat the boys, and they left us with nothing. Our girls escaped, she said after we learned that the girls in the group who had followed us had been raped.
A young woman who fled the city, Rawaa Abdalla, reported missing her father.
She said, “We don’t know whether he’s alive or dead, whether he’s been injured or with those who left.
RSF head Mohamed Hamdan Hemedti “Dagalo called on his fighters to defend civilians in a speech on Wednesday night and said violations would be brought to justice.
The paramilitary group, which has been fighting the Sudanese army since April 2023, claimed on Thursday that it had arrested several fighters accused of abuses, but UNHCR’s Tom Fletcher questioned the RSF’s commitment to conducting an investigation.
According to Reuters news agency, a senior RSF commander called the army’s and its allies’ accounts an exaggeration to account for their demise and loss of El-Fasher.
According to the UN, the conflict, which has forced some 14 million people from their homes and caused the worst humanitarian crisis in history, has claimed the lives of the RSF and the army. Flus are common, and cholera and other deadly diseases are becoming more prevalent.
“Killed, blocked, and hunted down”
According to the UN, more than 62, 000 people emigrated from El-Fasher between Sunday and Wednesday. 260, 000 people lived in El-Fasher as of late August.
According to a statement released on Friday, Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF) said organizations operating on the ground estimate that only about 5, 000 people have been able to travel to Tawila in the past five days.
The most likely, if frightening, response to patients’ complaints is that they are being killed, blocked, and hunted down as they attempt to flee, according to MSF head of emergencies Michel Olivier Lacharite, who called on mediators to intervene in the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt.
Of the 70 new arrivals in Tawila on October 27, according to MSF, every child under five years old was acutely malnourished, with 57 percent of them suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
RSF fighters reportedly locked people up for ransom, with amounts ranging from 5 million to 30 million Sudanese pounds (more than $8, 000 to nearly $50, 000), according to survivors who reported to the aid organization.
Another survivor reported gruesome scenes of RSF fighters driving around prisoners.
More survivors were contacted by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the agency that provides humanitarian assistance in Tawila and offers sexual and reproductive health care.
Only four people who could pay a ransom among a group of 200 men, women, and children ended up surviving four different encounters with RSF soldiers at checkpoints on the way to Tawila, according to a 24-year-old man.
The rest were killed, they said. They murdered women, elderly people, and children. He was quoted as saying, “I cannot describe the scene, it was intolerable to watch people die right in front of you, each with a single bullet.
A 26-year-old woman claimed that her husband only paid a ransom for her and their children, and that they were in danger of murder. After being asked if she was a virgin, a 19-year-old girl claimed that soldiers raped her.
Additionally, the UNFPA has confirmed that on October 29 RSF fighters killed at least 460 people in the el-Fasher maternity hospital.
According to the report, the death toll may have been much higher, with some victims reportedly being patients, visitors, displaced people, and healthcare workers.
Kordofan has seen more murders.
More than 36, 000 people have fled the Bara neighborhood, which the RSF had earlier taken control of, according to the UN in the state of North Kordofan, in the state of North Kordofan.
Because the state capital, el-Obeid, is still under army rule, the UN predicts North Kordofan will likely be the next battlefield for the RSF and the Sudanese army.
“Reports are also emerging about serious violations involving Barra town’s RSF capture, including the alleged summary execution of five Red Crescent volunteers. According to Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, “our human rights colleagues have also received alarming reports of sexual violence.”
Sudan Doctors Network spokesperson Mohammed Elsheikh reported to Al Jazeera from Manchester in the UK that Bara residents are in very poor health.
Between Bara and El-Obeid City, which are on very dangerous roads and in challenging environmental conditions, is a “long walk.” He said that we’re talking about a desert with extremely high daytime temperatures and extremely cold nighttime weather.
The army and the RSF have engaged in fierce combat in Bara, with the paramilitary group also making advances in nearby towns.
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