A displaced woman from El Fasher narrates atrocities committed by the Rapid Support after the fall of the city news

A displaced woman in Sudan said that members of the Rapid Support Forces beat and shot men as they fled the long-besieged city of El Fasher in the Darfur region, after they had tightened control over it. This was confirmed by statements from relief officials, satellite images, and undocumented video clips posted on social media.

With the fall of El Fasher, the last major stronghold of the Sudanese army in the Darfur region located in the west of the country, into the hands of the Rapid Support Forces the day before yesterday, Sunday, Ikram Abdel Hamid and four members of her family, including a grandson, were among thousands of civilians trying to flee.

Her account, in an audio recording obtained by Reuters after her arrival in a nearby town controlled by neutral forces, provides rare first-hand testimony of the Rapid Support Forces’ takeover of the city of El Fasher, where mobile phone networks were cut off.

Aid groups and activists have warned of the possibility of ethnically motivated revenge attacks, after the Rapid Support Forces overpowered the army and allied fighters, many of whom are from the Zaghawa tribe.

Ethnically motivated killing

The entry of the Rapid Support Forces into the city, after an 18-month siege, strengthens its control over Darfur, where it has previously been accused of committing ethnically motivated killings. This progress also cements the country’s de facto division between two governments.

Analysts believe that the Rapid Support Forces may exploit this momentum to expand their control.

The war that has been going on for two and a half years between the Rapid Support Forces and the army has led to what the United Nations has classified as “the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.” As severe hunger spread, the city of El Fasher was one of the areas where famine spread, while drone attacks targeted hospitals and other civilian communities within the city.

Ikram fled to the town of Tawila with her four family members, all of whom she said suffered injuries during the long siege and bombing of El Fasher.

“We were running, and they were chasing us… They were firing rockets in front of us and behind us,” she said, adding that she lost track of her husband amid the chaos.

She added that they were stopped at a dirt checkpoint set up by the Rapid Support Forces around the city, where men were separated from women.

Ikram said, “They lined up the men and said they wanted soldiers. When none of them raised their hands, one of the Rapid Support members picked some of them out, killed them, and beat them. They shot them in front of us. They shot them in the street.”

The women were taken to the other side of the checkpoint, where they heard more sounds of beatings and gunshots, and then they were allowed to leave.

“The soldiers ordered us to move forward, and said the men would follow us, but we never saw them again,” she said.

Ikram’s account matches video clips said to have been taken during the fall of El Fasher, but Reuters was unable to verify them due to the lack of signs identifying the location.

The clips showed young men being questioned about whether they were fighters before being shot at close range.

Her account is also consistent with satellite images published by the Human Research Laboratory at Yale University, which showed numerous groups of objects the size of human bodies and surrounded by a red color that may be blood near barriers built by the Rapid Support Forces and in other places in the city.

The United Nations Humanitarian Action Team in Sudan said – in a statement – “We are horrified by credible reports of (committing) widespread violations, including summary executions, attacking civilians on escape routes, raiding homes, and (placing) obstacles preventing civilians from reaching safety.”

Animal feed

Ikram stated in her testimony that her two-month-old grandson, whose parents were killed in attacks during the siege, became ill because he ate moldy animal feed.

She stated that she had only been able to give him milk once since his mother died two weeks ago, and she was feeding him rehydration solution until they arrived in the Tawila area.

A photo, obtained and verified by Reuters, showed the process of dripping the solution into a vein in the child’s hand and a bandage on his back.

Doctors Without Borders said that after examining arrivals from El Fasher to Tawila last week, it was found that 75% of the children suffer from chronic malnutrition, and 26% of them suffer from acute malnutrition.

Tawila hosts 800,000 displaced people, most of them from El Fasher and the nearby Zamzam camp for displaced people.