In excess of 60,000 Flee Sudanese City After Capture by Rapid Support Forces Paramilitary Group, UN Reports
According to the UN refugee agency, in excess of 60,000 individuals have escaped the city in Sudan of el-Fasher, which was captured by the paramilitary RSF recently.
Accounts suggest multiple executions and human rights violations as militia members stormed the city following an year-and-a-half siege characterized by food shortages and heavy bombardment.
The exodus of those running from the conflict towards the community of Tawila, about 80km (50 miles) west of el-Fasher, had grown in the recent days, per UNHCR spokesperson.
Refugees were telling horrendous stories of violence, including rape, and the humanitarian group was finding it difficult to secure sufficient shelter and food for them.
Every child was suffering from nutritional deficiencies, she added.
Estimates suggest that in excess of 150,000 people are currently stranded in el-Fasher, which had been the army's remaining stronghold in the western region of Darfur.
The RSF has disputed widespread allegations that the deaths in el-Fasher are driven by ethnicity and mirror a pattern of the Arab fighters attacking non-Arab communities.
Nevertheless the RSF has detained one of its militiamen, Abu Lulu, who has been implicated in summary executions.
The organization shared video revealing the militiaman's arrest after identification that he was behind the death of multiple civilians in the vicinity of el-Fasher.
Social media platform has verified that it has removed the channel connected to Lulu. Uncertainty exists whether he had managed the account in his identity.
Sudan was plunged into a civil war in April 2023 when a brutal power struggle broke out between its army and the RSF.
It has resulted in a famine and accusations of mass killing in the western Darfur region.
More than 150,000 individuals have been killed in the fighting across the country, and about 12 million have left their homes in what the UN has called the most extensive humanitarian crisis.
The capture of el-Fasher solidifies the geographic split in the country, with the Rapid Support Forces now in command of Sudan's west and significant areas of neighbouring Kordofan to the south, and the military occupying the capital, Khartoum, the center and east along the Red Sea.
The competing factions had been collaborators - gaining control together in a coup in 2021 - but disagreed over an globally supported plan to advance to civilian rule.