🔗 Share this article

As stated by the UN refugee agency, in excess of 60,000 people have escaped the Sudanese city of el-Fasher, which was seized by the militia Rapid Support Forces during the weekend.

There have been mass executions and atrocities as militia members took control of the city after an extended blockade characterized by starvation and heavy bombardment.

The movement of those running from the conflict towards the community of Tawila, about 80km (50 miles) west of el-Fasher, had increased in the past few days, according to United Nations refugee agency spokesperson.

Refugees were narrating terrible stories of abuses, including sexual violence, and the agency was having trouble to locate sufficient accommodation and nourishment for them.

Each child was experiencing malnutrition, she commented.

It is estimated that in excess of 150,000 individuals are still stranded in el-Fasher, which had been the army's remaining bastion in the western region of Darfur.

The Rapid Support Forces has denied extensive accusations that the executions in el-Fasher are driven by ethnicity and mirror a pattern of the Arab paramilitaries targeting ethnic minorities.

Nevertheless the RSF has custodied one of its militiamen, Abu Lulu, who has been implicated in extrajudicial killings.

The group distributed video showing the militiaman's detention after identification that he was involved in the death of multiple non-combatants close to el-Fasher.

Digital platform has acknowledged that it has banned the profile connected to Lulu. Uncertainty exists whether he had controlled the account in his identity.

Sudan was plunged into a civil war in April 2023 following a intense power struggle broke out between its military and the RSF.

It has resulted in a starvation emergency and claims of mass killing in the western Sudan.

More than 150,000 persons have been killed in the fighting around the country, and approximately 12 million have abandoned their residences in what the United Nations has described as the world's largest humanitarian crisis.

The seizure of el-Fasher strengthens the geographic split in the country, with the Rapid Support Forces now in control of Sudan's west and much of neighbouring Kordofan to the south, and the army controlling the capital, Khartoum, central and eastern areas along the Red Sea.

The opposing sides had been collaborators - coming to power together in a coup in 2021 - but disagreed over an globally supported plan to transition to civilian leadership.