Source: Aljazeera News
DST News: Since the fall of El-Fasher to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the United Nations and international aid organisations have sounded the alarm over an escalating humanitarian disaster. Reports of mass killings, sexual violence, and other grave abuses continue to emerge from the war-torn city.
Among those who managed to escape is Alkheir Ismail, a young Sudanese man who fled to Tawila, about 50 kilometres away. He recounted how his group of 300 was stopped by RSF fighters as they tried to flee El-Fasher on Sunday. He survived only because one of the captors recognised him from university. “He told them, ‘Don’t kill him’. After that, they killed the rest — my friends, the young men with me,” Ismail said.
Other survivors also described brutal encounters. Tahani Hassan recalled how RSF gunmen appeared suddenly, ordering them to stop at gunpoint. “They hit us hard and searched everyone, even the women,” she said, adding that one attacker “looked younger than my daughter.”
Fatima Abdulrahim, who escaped with her grandchildren, said she walked five days under harsh conditions to reach Tawila. “They beat the boys and took everything we had. We later learned the girls who fled after us were raped,” she said.
Another survivor, Rawaa Abdalla, said her father remains missing.
In a televised address, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo urged his forces to protect civilians and pledged to prosecute violations. The RSF later claimed to have detained several fighters accused of abuse. However, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher questioned the group’s sincerity, while a senior RSF commander dismissed the reports as “media exaggeration” aimed at covering up the army’s defeat in El-Fasher.
Both the RSF and the Sudanese army face accusations of war crimes in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands, displaced 14 million people, and triggered what the UN describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Starvation and disease outbreaks are spreading rapidly.
According to UN figures, over 62,000 people fled El-Fasher between Sunday and Wednesday. Yet aid groups warn that only about 5,000 have reached Tawila. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) fears that many of those missing were “killed, blocked, or hunted down” while trying to escape.
MSF reported alarming rates of child malnutrition: among 70 newly arrived children under five, every single one was malnourished — 57 percent severely so. Survivors also described RSF fighters separating captives by gender, age, and ethnicity, with many held for ransom ranging from 5 to 30 million Sudanese pounds (about $8,000–$50,000).
MSF has urged international mediators — including the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt — to act urgently to stop the violence and secure humanitarian access.
