🔗 Share this article

According to the UN refugee agency, over 60,000 people have fled the Sudanese city of el-Fasher, which was taken over by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces recently.

Accounts suggest summary killings and crimes against humanity as militia members stormed the city following an extended encirclement marked by food shortages and intense shelling.

The movement of those running from the violence towards the town of Tawila, approximately 80km (50 miles) to the west of el-Fasher, had grown in the last several days, per UNHCR spokesperson.

Refugees were describing horrendous tales of abuses, including rape, and the agency was finding it difficult to find adequate accommodation and nourishment for them.

Every child was affected by malnutrition, she added.

Calculations indicate that more than 150,000 individuals are presently unable to leave in el-Fasher, which had been the military's final stronghold in the western part of Darfur.

The Rapid Support Forces has rejected extensive allegations that the executions in el-Fasher are driven by ethnicity and mirror a pattern of the Arab paramilitaries focusing on non-Arab communities.

Nevertheless the RSF has detained one of its fighters, Abu Lulu, who has been implicated in on-the-spot executions.

The force shared footage depicting the fighter's arrest after confirmation that he was involved in the execution of multiple non-combatants close to el-Fasher.

Digital platform has confirmed that it has removed the profile associated with Lulu. It is not clear whether he had operated the account in his identity.

Sudan was plunged into a domestic fighting in April 2023 following a intense contest for control began between its military and the Rapid Support Forces.

The conflict has caused a food crisis and accusations of ethnic cleansing in the western Darfur region.

More than 150,000 people have lost their lives in the conflict around the country, and approximately 12 million have left their dwellings in what the UN has termed the biggest global humanitarian crisis.

The takeover of el-Fasher reinforces the territorial division in the country, with the RSF now in dominance of western Sudan and a large portion of adjacent Kordofan to the southern area, and the army holding the capital, Khartoum, central and eastern regions along the coastal region.

The opposing sides had been allies - gaining control together in a seizure of power in 2021 - but split over an foreign-endorsed initiative to advance to democratic governance.