Over 60,000 Flee Sudanese City Following Seizure by Rapid Support Forces Paramilitary Group, United Nations States
Per the United Nations refugee organization, in excess of 60,000 people have left the Sudanese city of el-Fasher, which was captured by the paramilitary RSF during the weekend.
Accounts suggest multiple executions and atrocities as paramilitary forces stormed the city after an year-and-a-half encirclement characterized by food shortages and sustained attacks.
The movement of those fleeing the violence towards the town of Tawila, roughly 80km (50 miles) to the west of el-Fasher, had accelerated in the recent days, per United Nations refugee agency representative.
Refugees were telling horrendous accounts of abuses, including sexual violence, and the agency was struggling to find adequate shelter and supplies for them.
Each child was suffering from malnutrition, she commented.
Calculations indicate that in excess of 150,000 residents are presently trapped in el-Fasher, which had been the army's remaining fortress in the western part of Darfur.
The RSF has rejected widespread allegations that the killings in el-Fasher are driven by ethnicity and follow a trend of the Arab militia groups focusing on non-Arab populations.
Yet the RSF has detained one of its members, Abu Lulu, who has been charged with on-the-spot executions.
The force distributed video depicting the militiaman's arrest following confirmation that he was involved in the execution of numerous unarmed men in the vicinity of el-Fasher.
Digital platform has verified that it has banned the channel linked to Lulu. The status remains unclear whether he had controlled the account in his identity.
Sudan was plunged into a internal conflict in April 2023 when a intense power struggle erupted between its army and the Rapid Support Forces.
The conflict has caused a food crisis and claims of genocide in the western Sudan.
More than 150,000 people have died in the conflict throughout the country, and roughly 12 million have abandoned their dwellings in what the United Nations has described as the world's largest humanitarian disaster.
The capture of el-Fasher reinforces the geographic split in the country, with the RSF now in command of the western region and a large portion of adjacent Kordofan to the southern area, and the army occupying the main city, Khartoum, the center and east along the coastal region.
The opposing sides had been collaborators - gaining control together in a coup in 2021 - but split over an globally supported plan to transition to democratic governance.