Over 60,000 Escape Sudanese City After Takeover by RSF Militia, UN Says

According to the UN refugee agency, over 60,000 civilians have escaped the city in Sudan of el-Fasher, which was seized by the paramilitary RSF recently.

Accounts suggest multiple executions and atrocities as militia members stormed the city following an extended blockade featuring starvation and intense shelling.

The movement of those escaping the conflict towards the community of Tawila, approximately 80km (50 miles) west of el-Fasher, had grown in the last several days, per United Nations refugee agency spokesperson.

They were describing terrible accounts of violence, such as sexual violence, and the humanitarian group was finding it difficult to locate adequate shelter and supplies for them.

Each child was experiencing undernourishment, she commented.

It is estimated that over 150,000 residents are presently unable to leave in el-Fasher, which had been the army's last bastion in the western region of Darfur.

The Rapid Support Forces has denied extensive allegations that the executions in el-Fasher are ethnically motivated and resemble a practice of the Arab paramilitaries attacking ethnic minorities.

However the paramilitary group has arrested one of its fighters, Abu Lulu, who has been implicated in extrajudicial killings.

The group released video depicting the member's arrest after confirmation that he was responsible for the execution of several civilians in the vicinity of el-Fasher.

Video sharing service has verified that it has removed the profile associated with Lulu. It is not clear whether he had operated the profile in his identity.

Sudan was plunged into a civil war in April 2023 following a brutal contest for control began between its military and the RSF.

The conflict has caused a starvation emergency and accusations of genocide in the Darfur area.

More than 150,000 individuals have been killed in the conflict throughout the country, and approximately 12 million have fled their residences in what the UN has termed the biggest global humanitarian disaster.

The takeover of el-Fasher reinforces the regional separation in the country, with the Rapid Support Forces now in dominance of the western region and significant areas of neighbouring Kordofan to the southern area, and the military occupying the main city, Khartoum, central and eastern areas along the coastal region.

The opposing sides had been collaborators - coming to power together in a coup in 2021 - but disagreed over an foreign-endorsed plan to move towards civilian rule.