The terrifying escape from el-Fasher in Darfur

Abdelkader Abdallah Ali suffered severe damage to the nerves in his leg during the long siege of the Sudanese city of El Fasher because he was unable to obtain medication to treat diabetes.

The 62-year-old walks with a heavy limp, but was so terrified when paramilitary Rapid Support Forces fighters finally captured the city in the western Darfur region, he felt no pain as he ran.

“The morning the RSF arrived, there were bullets, many bullets, and explosives going off,” he says.

“People were out of control [with fear]They fled their homes, and everyone ran in different directions, the father, the son, and the daughter running.”

The fall of El Fasher after an 18-month siege represents a particularly brutal chapter in Sudan’s civil war.

The BBC traveled to a camp in northern Sudan set up in army-controlled territory to hear first-hand the stories of those fleeing. The team was monitored by the authorities throughout the visit.

The Rapid Support Forces have been fighting the regular army since April 2023, when a power struggle broke out between them and turned into war.

The capture of El Fasher was a major victory for the paramilitary group, driving the army out of its last foothold in Darfur.

But evidence of mass atrocities has drawn international condemnation and focused greater American attention on trying to end the conflict.

Warning: This report contains details that some readers may find distressing.

We found Mr. Ali wandering around the camp located in the desert about 770 kilometers (480 miles) northeast of El Fasher, near the town of Dabba.

He was trying to register his family in a tent.

“they [RSF fighters] “They were shooting at people – old people, civilians, with live ammunition, and they were emptying their weapons on them.”

“Some members of the Rapid Support Forces came in their cars. If they saw that someone was still breathing, they would drive over them.”

Ali said he would run when he could, crawl on the ground or hide when the threat got too close. He managed to reach the village of Gurni, a few kilometers from El Fasher.

Gurni was the first stop for many who fled the city, including Muhammad Abkar Adam, a local official in the nearby Zamzam camp for displaced people.

Mr. Adam withdrew to El Fasher when the Rapid Support Forces overran the Zamzam area in April, and left the day before they took over the city in October.

He grew a white beard to make himself look older, hoping this would lead to more lenient treatment.

“The road here was full of death,” he said.

“They shot some people right in front of us, then picked them up and threw them away. On the road, we saw bodies out in the open, not buried. Others were lying there for two or three days.”

“A lot of people are spread out everywhere,” he added. “We don’t know where they are.”

Some of those who did not make the long journey to Al-Dabba were able to reach a humanitarian center in Tawila, about 70 kilometers from El Fasher.

Others crossed into Chad. But the United Nations says that less than half of the 260,000 people who were in the city before its fall have not been identified.

Aid agencies believe many people did not make it far, unable to flee because of danger, detention or the cost of purchasing a way out.

Mr. Adam said fighters also raped women, confirming widespread accounts of sexual violence.

He added: “They would take the woman behind a tree, or take her away from us, out of sight, so that she would not be seen with your own eyes.”

“But you will hear her screaming: Help me, help me.” She would come and say: “They raped me.”

Most of them are women in the camp, and many do not want to reveal their identities to protect those left behind.

A 19-year-old woman told us that RSF fighters at a checkpoint took a girl from the group she was traveling with, and had to leave her behind.

“I was scared,” she said. “When they took her out of the car at the checkpoint, I was afraid they would take a girl at every checkpoint. But they just took her, and that was it until we got here.”

She traveled here with her sister and younger brother. Her father was a soldier who was killed in battle. Her mother was not in El Fasher when she fell.

So the three siblings fled the city on foot with their grandmother, but she died before they reached Gurney, leaving them to continue their lives on their own.

The young woman said: “We did not get enough water because we did not know that the distance was far.”

“We walked and walked and my grandmother lost consciousness. I thought it might be due to lack of food or water.

“I checked her pulse, but she wouldn’t wake up, so I found a doctor in a nearby village. He came and said: ‘Your grandmother gave you her soul.’ “I was trying to keep it together because of my sister and brother, but I didn’t know how to tell my mother.”

They were all particularly concerned for their 15-year-old brother because the RSF suspected that the fleeing men had fought with the army.

The boy described his ordeal at a checkpoint when all the young men were taken out of the vehicles.

He explained, “The Rapid Support Forces interrogated us for hours in the sun.” “They said we were soldiers, and maybe some of our seniors were too.

“The Rapid Support Forces fighters stood above us and circled around us, whipping us and threatening us with their rifles. I lost hope and told them: ‘Whatever you want to do to me, do it.’”

They eventually let him go, after his 13-year-old sister told them that her father had died, and he was her only sibling. They were reunited with their mother in Al-Daba camp.

Many people describe the RSF separating older men and women from fighting-age men.

This is what happened to Abdullah Adam Mohamed in Gurnee, separating him from his three young daughters – aged two, four and six. The perfume seller had been taking care of them since his wife was killed in the bombing four months ago.

“I gave my daughters to women [travelling with us]He told the BBC: “Then the Rapid Support Forces brought large vehicles, and we… [the men] We were afraid they would forcibly recruit us. So some of us ran and fled into the neighborhood.

“All night, I was thinking, ‘How will I ever find my children again?’ I’ve lost so many people already – I was afraid I would lose them too.”

Muhammad escaped, but the others did not. Mr. Ali said that from a distance he saw the Rapid Support Forces shooting at a group of men.

He told the BBC: “They killed the men, not the women, but the men were all shot dead.” “There were a lot of dead people and we ran away.”

Mr. Ali and Mr. Adam left Gurney on donkeys, and traveled by night to the next village, Tura.

Mr. Mohammed also arrived in Toura, where he met his girls. From there, they took cars for the long journey to Al-Dhaba.

Many arrived at the camp empty-handed. They left the city with almost nothing and had to pay money to cross checkpoints.

“The RSF fighters stripped us of everything we had: money, phones, and even our nice clothes,” Adam said. “At each stop, they force you to call your relatives to transfer money to your mobile phone account before they allow you to move to the next checkpoint.”

The Rapid Support Forces told the BBC that they reject accusations of committing systematic violations against civilians.

Dr. Ibrahim Mukhair, advisor to the Commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, said, “The specific allegations raised, such as looting, killing, sexual violence or mistreatment of civilians, do not reflect our directives.”

“Any member of the Rapid Support Forces proven responsible for committing any violations will be fully held accountable.”

He said the group believed the allegations of widespread atrocities were part of a politically motivated media campaign against them by what he described as Islamist elements within the Sudanese military-led administration.

The Rapid Support Forces released videos to try to reshape the narrative, showing their officers greeting people fleeing El Fasher, trucks carrying humanitarian aid, and reopened medical centers.

Mohammed told the BBC that RSF soldiers were more brutal when their officers were not present, while Adam rejected what he described as the paramilitary group’s attempts to improve its image.

“They have this strategy,” he added. “They would gather 10 or 15 people, give us water and film us being nice to us.

“Once the cameras disappear, they will start beating us, they will treat us very badly and they will take everything we have.”

Earlier this year, the United States determined that the Rapid Support Forces had committed genocide in Darfur.

But the Sudanese Armed Forces and allied militias have also been accused of committing atrocities, including targeting civilians suspected of supporting the RSF, and indiscriminate shelling of residential areas.

This particularly brutal chapter in Sudan’s devastating war has caught the attention of US President Donald Trump. He has promised to participate more directly in ongoing US efforts to broker a ceasefire.

For those who fled El Fasher, this seems a distant prospect. They have been broken again and again by this conflict and have no idea what will happen next.

But they are flexible. Ali did not hear of Trump’s sudden interest. He had been hounding officials for permission to stay at the camp in a tent, where, he says, “we can live and rest.”