In excess of 60,000 Flee Sudan's City After Seizure by RSF Paramilitary Group, UN Reports
According to the UNHCR, over 60,000 people have fled the city in Sudan of el-Fasher, which was captured by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces over the weekend.
There have been mass executions and atrocities as RSF fighters took control of the city after an year-and-a-half siege marked by famine and sustained attacks.
The movement of those escaping the conflict towards the community of Tawila, roughly 80km (50 miles) west of el-Fasher, had grown in the recent days, per UNHCR spokesperson.
They were narrating terrible accounts of violence, such as sexual violence, and the agency was finding it difficult to find sufficient accommodation and supplies for them.
Every child was affected by undernourishment, she noted.
Calculations indicate that more than 150,000 individuals are still stranded in el-Fasher, which had been the military's remaining stronghold in the western part of Darfur.
The RSF has rejected widespread allegations that the deaths in el-Fasher are driven by ethnicity and resemble a trend of the Arab paramilitaries focusing on non-Arab communities.
Nevertheless the paramilitary group has custodied one of its militiamen, Abu Lulu, who has been accused of on-the-spot executions.
The organization distributed video revealing the member's detention following confirmation that he was behind the killing of multiple civilians close to el-Fasher.
Social media platform has confirmed that it has removed the account linked to Lulu. It is not clear whether he had controlled the account in his name.
Sudan was entered a internal conflict in April 2023 when a brutal power struggle broke out between its military and the RSF.
It has caused a starvation emergency and accusations of mass killing in the Darfur area.
In excess of 150,000 people have died in the fighting throughout the country, and roughly 12 million have abandoned their residences in what the UN has described as the biggest global humanitarian emergency.
The seizure 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 adjacent Kordofan to the south, and the army occupying the main city, Khartoum, central and eastern regions along the coastal region.
The opposing sides had been collaborators - coming to power together in a coup in 2021 - but fell out over an globally supported proposal to advance to civilian rule.