Tens of thousands of Sudanese civilians might still be trapped in Sudan’s El-Fasher city after its fall to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) a week ago, an aid group warned on Sunday.
The RSF is accused of committing atrocities against civilians in El-Fasher, including summary executions, mass killings, and rapes, raising fears over nearly 250,000 Sudanese who could still be trapped in the city.
Civilians Trapped
Since the RSF captured El-Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur state, only a few thousand Sudanese managed to reach the nearest displacement camp, reported the Associated Press (AP).
According to Sudan director for the Norwegian Refugee Council, Shashwat Saraf, less than 6,000 have made it to the nearest camp in Tawila, located 65 km away, while nearly 1,000 people arrived in the last three days, including around 170 unaccompanied children.
“The numbers are still very few. We are not seeing the hundreds of thousands that we were expecting. If people are still in El-Fasher, it will be very difficult for them to survive,” he told the AP.
Since the RSF seized El-Fasher, 70,894 people have been displaced, mostly on foot, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which estimates that more than 8,000 people were displaced from El-Fasher on Saturday and Sunday.
“We feel that a lot of people are stuck in locations from where it is not safe for them to move, and they need to pay to move and they don’t have money to pay,” Saraf said.
Horrifying Testimonies
Survivors who made it to Tawila – a town west of El-Fasher sheltering more than 652,000 displaced people – have shared horrifying accounts of their journey. “People arriving in the camp are mostly disoriented and dehydrated with bruises all over. Sometimes they do not even remember their names, they have to be taken to the hospital and have IV fluids,” Saraf noted.
Reports and videos circulating on social media have indicated that the RSF is committing heinous crimes against civilians in El-Fasher. Hence, the UN warned against the atrocities in El-Fasher, calling for accountability for the perpetrators.
“Since the RSF made a major incursion into the city on 23 October, we have received horrendous accounts of summary executions, mass killings, rapes, attacks against humanitarian workers, looting, abductions and forced displacement,” the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said on Friday.
Furthermore, the OHCHR received reports of sexual violence. “At least 25 women were gang raped when RSF’s forces entered a shelter for displaced people near El-Fasher University. Witnesses confirm RSF’s personnel selected women and girls and raped them at gunpoint,” it said.
“There must be independent, prompt, transparent and thorough investigations into all such breaches of international law, and for those responsible to be held to account,” the UN agency urged.
Sudan’s Civil War
The war in Sudan broke out in April 2023, with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and RSF engaging in deadly fighting. After an 18-month siege and fierce battles, the RSF declared on Sunday that its forces had taken control of El-Fasher after capturing the 6th Infantry Division command, SAF’s main base in North Darfur state.
A day later, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) Chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, confirmed that his forces had withdrawn from the city “to a safer location,” indicating that all five Darfur state capitals have become under the RSF control.
Currently, the country is effectively split in two, with the SAF controlling the center, north and east, while the RSF holds Darfur region and parts of the south, with each side declaring a government.
The conflict has triggered what the UN described as “the world’s most devastating humanitarian and displacement crisis,” which has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced over 14 million inside Sudan and to neighboring countries, and pushed parts of the country into famine amid cholera outbreaks.
Allegations against the UAE
The SAF-aligned government in Sudan has repeatedly accused the UAE of providing military support to the RSF – a claim that Abu Dhabi has consistently rejected.
Moreover, Sudan filed a case against the UAE at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing it of “complicity in acts of genocide against the Masalit community in West Darfur by backing the RSF.” However, the ICJ dismissed Sudan’s case because it “manifestly lacked” jurisdiction to continue the proceedings.
On Sunday, Sudan’s ambassador to Egypt, Imadeldin Mustafa Adawi, accused the RSF of carrying out war crimes in El-Fasher, renewing his government’s accusations that the UAE has been providing military support to the paramilitary group.
The UAE, for its part, has strongly rejected Sudan’s allegations. After the fall of El-Fasher, the UAE condemned “the heinous attacks against civilians in El-Fasher, in blatant violation of international humanitarian law,” calling on the international community to hold all perpetrators of atrocities accountable. It also urged the RSF to ensure the protection of civilians and humanitarian personnel.
Furthermore, the UAE’s Permanent Representative at the UN called on the Security Council to “apply pressure on the warring parties, and use all its tools to compel them to return to the negotiating table with a genuine commitment to seek peace.”
