Survivors of el-Fasher siege inform the BBC about RSF brutality

[ad_1] Barbara Plett Usher Africa correspondent

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/1229/live/3f8e3070-b5d5-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/1229/live/3f8e3070-b5d5-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/1229/live/3f8e3070-b5d5-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/1229/live/3f8e3070-b5d5-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/1229/live/3f8e3070-b5d5-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/1229/live/3f8e3070-b5d5-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/1229/live/3f8e3070-b5d5-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/1229/live/3f8e3070-b5d5-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="BBC A head and shoulders shot of man in a light blue shirt. He has a clip mic attached to a collar. " class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> BBC Ezzeldin Hassan Musa was overwhelmed with sticks earlier than he managed to flee

Shaken, scratched and left with simply the garments he's carrying, Ezzeldin Hassan Musa describes the brutality of Sudan's Fast Help Forces (RSF) within the wake of the paramilitary group taking management of el-Fasher metropolis within the Darfur area.

He says its fighters tortured and murdered males attempting to flee.

Now within the city of Tawila, mendacity exhausted on a mat underneath a gazebo, Ezzeldin is certainly one of a number of thousand individuals who have made it to relative security after escaping what the UN has described as "horrific" violence.

On Wednesday, RSF chief Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo admitted to "violations" in el-Fasher and mentioned they might be investigated. A day later a senior UN official mentioned the RSF had given discover that that they had arrested some suspects.

About an 80km (50-mile) journey from el-Fasher, Tawila is certainly one of a number of locations the place these fortunate sufficient to flee the RSF fighters are fleeing to.

"We left el-Fasher 4 days in the past. The struggling we encountered on the best way was unimaginable," Ezzeldin says.

"We had been divided into teams and overwhelmed. The scenes had been extraordinarily brutal. We noticed individuals murdered in entrance of us. We noticed individuals being overwhelmed. It was actually horrible.

"I actually was hit on the top, again, and legs. They beat me with sticks. They needed to execute us utterly. However when the chance arose, we ran, whereas others in entrance had been detained."

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/e843/live/51070180-b5bf-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/e843/live/51070180-b5bf-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/e843/live/51070180-b5bf-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/e843/live/51070180-b5bf-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/e843/live/51070180-b5bf-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/e843/live/51070180-b5bf-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/e843/live/51070180-b5bf-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/e843/live/51070180-b5bf-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="A woman, in a pink shirt and blue scarf, with her back to the camera holds a child on her hip. Another child can be seen on her left." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Most of those that have reached Tawila are ladies and kids

Ezzeldin says he joined a bunch of escapees who took shelter in a constructing, shifting by evening and generally actually crawling alongside the bottom in an effort to stay hidden.

"Our belongings had been stolen," he says. "Telephones, garments - every thing. Actually, even my footwear had been stolen. Nothing was left.

"We went with out meals for 3 days whereas strolling within the streets. By God's mercy, we made it by."

These in Tawila advised the BBC that males making the journey had been notably more likely to be subjected to scrutiny by the RSF, with fighters concentrating on anybody suspected of being a soldier.

Ezzeldin is certainly one of round 5,000 individuals thought to have arrived in Tawila for the reason that fall of el-Fasher on Sunday.

Many have made the whole journey on foot, travelling for 3 or 4 days to flee the violence.

A contract journalist based mostly in Tawila, working for the BBC, has carried out among the many first interviews with a few of those that made the journey.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/b560/live/00968a60-b5d6-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/b560/live/00968a60-b5d6-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/b560/live/00968a60-b5d6-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/b560/live/00968a60-b5d6-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/b560/live/00968a60-b5d6-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/b560/live/00968a60-b5d6-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/b560/live/00968a60-b5d6-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/b560/live/00968a60-b5d6-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="A head and shoulders shot of a man speaking. He is wearing a stripy, collared shirt. A blue cloth can be seen behind him." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Ahmed Ismail Ibrahim says 4 of the six individuals he fled with had been shot lifeless

Close to to Ezzeldin sits Ahmed Ismail Ibrahim, his physique bandaged in a number of locations.

He says his eye was injured in an artillery strike, and he left the town on Sunday after receiving therapy in hospital.

He and 6 different males had been stopped by RSF fighters.

"4 of them - they killed them in entrance of us. Beat them and killed them," he says, including that he was shot thrice.

Ahmed describes how the fighters demanded to see the telephones of the three who had been left alive and went by them, looking their messages.

One fighter, he says, lastly advised them: "OK, rise up and go." They fled into the scrub.

"My brothers," he provides, "they did not depart me behind.

"We walked for about 10 minutes, then rested for 10 minutes, and we continued till we discovered peace now."

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/27a8/live/610769f0-b5d6-11f0-ba75-093eca1ac29b.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/27a8/live/610769f0-b5d6-11f0-ba75-093eca1ac29b.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/27a8/live/610769f0-b5d6-11f0-ba75-093eca1ac29b.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/27a8/live/610769f0-b5d6-11f0-ba75-093eca1ac29b.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/27a8/live/610769f0-b5d6-11f0-ba75-093eca1ac29b.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/27a8/live/610769f0-b5d6-11f0-ba75-093eca1ac29b.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/27a8/live/610769f0-b5d6-11f0-ba75-093eca1ac29b.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/27a8/live/610769f0-b5d6-11f0-ba75-093eca1ac29b.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="A head and shoulders shot of a woman in a blue headscarf. The gauze of a tent can be seen behind her and some figures are out of focus." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Yusra Ibrahim Mohamed fled after her husband, who was a soldier, was killed

Within the subsequent tent within the clinic run by medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Yusra Ibrahim Mohamed describes making the choice to flee the town after her husband, a soldier with the Sudanese military, was killed.

"My husband was within the artillery," she says. "He was returning house and was killed throughout the assaults.

"We stayed affected person. Then the clashes and assaults continued. We managed to flee.

"We left three days in the past," she says, "shifting in several instructions from the artillery areas. The individuals guiding us did not know what was taking place.

"If somebody resisted, they had been overwhelmed or robbed. They'd take every thing you had. Folks might even be executed. I noticed lifeless our bodies within the streets."

Alfadil Dukhan works within the MSF clinic.

He and his colleagues have been offering emergency care to those that arrive - amongst them, he says, are 500 in want of pressing medical therapy.

"Many of the new arrivals are elders and ladies or youngsters," the medic says.

"The wounded are struggling, and a few of them they have already got amputations.

"So they're actually struggling so much. And we try to only give them some assist and a few medical care."

These arriving this week in Tawila be a part of a whole bunch of 1000's there who fled earlier rounds of violence in el-Fasher.

Earlier than its seizure by the RSF on Sunday, the town had been besieged for 18 months.

These trapped inside had been bombarded by a barrage of lethal artillery and air strikes as the military and the paramilitaries battled for el-Fasher.

And so they had been plunged right into a extreme starvation disaster by an RSF blockade of provides and help.

Lots of of 1000's had been displaced in April when the RSF seized management of the Zamzam camp near the town, on the time one of many essential websites housing individuals pressured to flee combating elsewhere.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/b2b8/live/fa1f7f60-b5bd-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/b2b8/live/fa1f7f60-b5bd-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/b2b8/live/fa1f7f60-b5bd-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/b2b8/live/fa1f7f60-b5bd-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/b2b8/live/fa1f7f60-b5bd-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/b2b8/live/fa1f7f60-b5bd-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/b2b8/live/fa1f7f60-b5bd-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/b2b8/live/fa1f7f60-b5bd-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Three women wrapped in headscarves sitting on the ground in front of makeshift tents. Some of their belongings in buckets and bags lie in front of them." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> It's thought that round 5,000 have reached Tawila in the previous couple of days - it's not clear what number of stay behind

Some specialists have expressed concern on the comparatively low numbers arriving at locations like Tawila now.

"That is truly some extent of fear for us," says Caroline Bouvoir, who works with refugees in neighbouring Chad for the help company Solidarités Worldwide

"Prior to now few days now we have about 5,000 individuals who have arrived, which contemplating we consider there have been a few quarter of 1,000,000 individuals nonetheless within the metropolis, that's clearly not that many," she says.

"We see the situations that those that have arrived are in. They're extremely malnourished, extremely dehydrated, or sick or injured, and they're clearly traumatised with what they've seen both within the metropolis or on the highway.

"We consider that many individuals are caught at present in several areas between Tawila and el-Fasher, and unable to maneuver ahead - both due to their bodily situation or due to the insecurity on the highway, the place militias are sadly attacking people who find themselves looking for protected haven."

For Ezzeldin the reduction of getting reached security is tempered by the fears for these nonetheless behind him on the journey.

"My message is that public roads must be secured for residents," he pleads, "or humanitarian help despatched to the streets.

"Individuals are in a crucial state - they can not transfer, communicate, or search assist.

"Support ought to attain them, as a result of many are lacking and struggling."

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/fdab/live/a18f3670-b594-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.png.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/fdab/live/a18f3670-b594-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.png.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/fdab/live/a18f3670-b594-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.png.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/fdab/live/a18f3670-b594-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.png.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/fdab/live/a18f3670-b594-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.png.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/fdab/live/a18f3670-b594-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.png.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/fdab/live/a18f3670-b594-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.png.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/fdab/live/a18f3670-b594-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.png.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Map of Sudan showing territorial control as of 28 October 2025. Areas controlled by the army and allied groups are marked in red, RSF and allied groups in blue, and other armed groups in yellow. Key cities such as Khartoum, and el-Fasher are labelled . The Nile River is also depicted. Source: Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Extra BBC tales on the battle:

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images/BBC A woman looking at her mobile phone and the graphic BBC News Africa" class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Getty Photographs/BBC [ad_2] Source link