In excess of 60,000 Run from Sudanese City After Seizure by RSF Paramilitary Group, United Nations Says
Per the UNHCR, more than 60,000 people have fled the city in Sudan of el-Fasher, which was seized by the paramilitary RSF recently.
Accounts suggest multiple executions and crimes against humanity as paramilitary forces took control of the city following an 18-month blockade marked by famine and heavy bombardment.
The flow of those escaping the fighting towards the town of Tawila, about 80km (50 miles) to the west of el-Fasher, had grown in the last several days, according to United Nations refugee agency representative.
Refugees were describing terrible tales of atrocities, featuring rape, and the humanitarian group was having trouble to find enough housing and nourishment for them.
Each child was suffering from nutritional deficiencies, she added.
Calculations indicate that in excess of 150,000 individuals are still stranded in el-Fasher, which had been the army's last fortress in the western region of Darfur.
The RSF has rejected extensive claims that the deaths in el-Fasher are ethnically motivated and resemble a pattern of the Arab paramilitaries focusing on non-Arab populations.
However the RSF has custodied one of its fighters, Abu Lulu, who has been charged with on-the-spot executions.
The group released video revealing the fighter's apprehension subsequent to identification that he was involved in the death of numerous non-combatants close to el-Fasher.
Video sharing service has verified that it has banned the account associated with Lulu. Uncertainty exists whether he had managed the profile in his name.
Sudan was plunged into a civil war in April 2023 after a intense power struggle broke out between its military and the Rapid Support Forces.
The conflict has led to a starvation emergency and accusations of genocide in the Darfur area.
In excess of 150,000 persons have been killed in the fighting 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 Rapid Support Forces now in command of Sudan's west and a large portion of adjacent Kordofan to the south, and the army occupying the capital, Khartoum, the center and east along the coastal region.
The opposing sides had been partners - gaining control together in a seizure of power in 2021 - but split over an globally supported proposal to transition to civilian rule.