More than 60,000 Run from Sudan's City After Capture by RSF Militia, United Nations Says
According to the UN refugee agency, more than 60,000 people have escaped the Sudanese city of el-Fasher, which was captured by the paramilitary RSF recently.
Reports indicate mass executions and human rights violations as paramilitary forces stormed the city after an extended siege featuring starvation and intense shelling.
The movement of those fleeing the fighting towards the community of Tawila, about 80km (50 miles) west of el-Fasher, had grown in the past few days, according to United Nations refugee agency spokesperson.
Survivors were telling horrendous stories of abuses, including sexual violence, and the agency was having trouble to secure enough accommodation and food for them.
Each child was experiencing malnutrition, she commented.
Calculations indicate that over 150,000 individuals are currently stranded in el-Fasher, which had been the army's final bastion in the western region of Darfur.
The RSF has denied widespread accusations that the deaths in el-Fasher are ethnically motivated and mirror a practice of the Arab fighters attacking non-Arab populations.
Nevertheless the RSF has custodied one of its militiamen, Abu Lulu, who has been charged with summary executions.
The organization distributed footage revealing the fighter's detention after identification that he was responsible for the execution of multiple non-combatants near el-Fasher.
Digital platform has acknowledged that it has suspended the account associated with Lulu. Uncertainty exists whether he had operated the profile in his name.
Sudan was thrown into a domestic fighting in April 2023 when a brutal contest for control erupted between its army and the RSF.
The conflict has resulted in a food crisis and allegations of mass killing in the western Darfur region.
Over 150,000 individuals have lost their lives in the conflict across the country, and roughly 12 million have abandoned their homes in what the United Nations has called the world's largest humanitarian crisis.
The capture of el-Fasher solidifies the regional separation in the country, with the RSF now in control of the western region and significant areas of adjacent Kordofan to the south, and the military controlling the capital, Khartoum, central and eastern regions along the coastal region.
The opposing sides had been partners - taking over together in a takeover in 2021 - but split over an globally supported plan to advance to democratic governance.
