By Nathan Morley
More than 62,000 people are believed to have fled El-Fasher after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces seized control of the city, ending an 18-month siege.
Many walked nearly 70 kilometres to reach the Tawila refugee camp, escaping severe shortages of food, water and shelter.
Aid agencies warn thousands remain trapped in the city amid reports of executions, sexual violence and looting.
The United Nations has called for urgent investigations and accountability.
The RSF, which emerged from the Janjaweed militias accused of genocide during the Darfur conflict two decades ago, has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces since April 2023.
The fall of El-Fasher marks a major shift in the conflict, as the RSF forces Sudan’s army to withdraw from the last government-held city in Darfur.
Sudan is now facing the world’s largest humanitarian and displacement crisis.
About 14 million people have been forced from their homes out of a population of 51 million.
Famine is widespread, and outbreaks of cholera and other deadly diseases are increasing.
Since the powerful paramilitary group made a major incursion into the city, the UN human rights office has received “horrendous accounts of summary executions, mass killings, rapes, attacks against humanitarian workers, looting, abductions and forced displacement,” said Seif Magango, spokesperson for the UN human rights office. – Vatican News
