El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, is one of the biggest hells today. After more than 500 days of siege, the city surrendered to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which were at war with the Sudanese army. At the end of October, months after the attack, the militia took over the city and slaughtered the population: armed attacks, rapes against women and girls, and continuous shooting against civilians. The communications blackout made it difficult to verify the death toll, but the United Nations estimates that nearly 500 people were killed in the Saudi maternity hospital in El Fasher alone. The death toll after seizing the municipality may exceed 2,000 people, according to Sudanese authorities.
Shaina Lewis, human rights advisor for the NGO Avaaz specializing in Sudan, believes that the El Fasher massacres are “the most predictable genocide on the planet.” “Within a week, the Rapid Support Forces executed many civilians, which led to the transformation of the land of El Fasher,” he told El Pais newspaper via video. “From space you can see the liters of blood that stained the Earth.”
The Human Research Laboratory of the Yale University School of Public Health (USA) analyzed the situation in the El Fasher region at the end of October. Satellite images included in a recent report show Rapid Support Forces vehicles, some equipped with weapons, along with human-sized objects and red spots on the ground near the vehicles. The Analysis Center estimated the number of deaths at 10,000 civilians.
Survivors of the attacks, who now reside in the Tawila IDP camp, 60 kilometers west of El Fasher, shared their testimonies during this conference. All names used in survivor testimonies have been changed to protect their identity.
Amira, a mother of four children, fled El Fasher towards Korma, about 40 kilometers northwest of the country. He says the road was long and “full of corpses.” The family witnessed the murders with their own eyes, and no one was able to help them. “We woke up trembling with fear, as images of the massacre haunt us,” Amira said in a recent press conference sponsored by Avaaz. Members of the Rapid Support Forces took her and her children hostage: “They did not let us leave until we paid them one million Sudanese pounds (about 1,500 euros) per head.” They arrived in Tawila after being stripped of all their possessions: “We walked for about 10 hours on thorns.”
Muhammad, another El Fasher survivor, was working in the cafeteria of the Saudi Maternity Hospital, the last remaining medical facility there, at the time of the attack. He ran away. On the way to Al-Tawila, the militia searched him completely, along with those who accompanied him: “Even the Rapid Support Forces searched the children’s diapers and sanitary pads.” He remembers being beaten and humiliated repeatedly. He is also forced to walk for long hours, hungry and thirsty.
Hawa, a widow and mother of two children aged 2 and 12, is eight months pregnant. She decided to leave the capital after her husband was killed. All his possessions were stolen. In her case, the same militia took her to Tawila. He expressed his regret at the press conference, saying: “I don’t know anything about my family in El Fasher.” “Winter is coming now. We need organizations to help us by bringing blankets, clothes and water containers.”
The transfer of civilians from El Fasher to Tawila by the Rapid Support Forces was, according to Lewis, a frequent practice but questioned by humanitarian workers. The specialist identifies three types: killing civilians, transferring them to Tawila camp, or transferring them to unknown places. In the latter case, the treatment and fate they receive is unknown.
Deng left on the first day of the final attack on the capital. He recalls that the paramilitary forces gathered several people – including himself – and conducted a live broadcast in which they bragged about the good treatment they were providing to civilians. But shortly before, the militia stripped them of all their possessions. The man also recalls being attacked by drones belonging to the Sudanese Armed Forces, the Sudanese army to which he was accused of belonging. He explains: “(The Rapid Support Forces) were constantly saying that there were no longer any civilians in El Fasher, and that we were all soldiers in the Sudanese Armed Forces.”
Thursday was marked by the days of siege in the capital: “The last two days we did not find anything to eat.” The militia took his son along with a hundred other minors. “I told them I was sick, and that I was suffering from anemia,” he says. “I begged them to bring him back to me.” The next day, she was transferred to Al-Tawila. He never saw his son again.
Abu lost two of his children in the RSF bombing, one of them in his home. The market where he worked was also bombed. Bags of animal food were sold there, and for several days it was the only source of food available to the residents. After being taken hostage, he had to call a friend to respond to the militia’s demand for one million Sudanese pounds (1,500 euros). After his release, it took him three days – on foot and “exhausting” – to reach Tawila.
Sexual violence and unaccompanied children
Although the data obtained is still scarce due to the interruption of the communications network, the information obtained by experts in this field is worrying. Adam Rogal, spokesman for the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees, offers some of this advice. “We recorded 150 cases of sexual violence, 1,300 cases of gunshot wounds, and 750 unaccompanied children” among those arriving from El Fasher to Tawila camp, the last safe point in Darfur.
Natalia Romero, MSF’s communications officer in North Darfur, confirms that the influx of people is still significant: “It is very difficult to estimate how many people have arrived, but it is between 5,000 and 15,000, although there is no official organization that does the counting,” she says in an audio message. UN access to the area controlled by the Rapid Support Forces remains restricted.
Last August, the International Organization for Migration estimated that there were about 260,000 people still residing in El Fasher. According to Romero, those arriving to Al Taweelah represent a “very low number.” However, this is of great concern to those working on the ground: it indicates that many civilians are dead or are still in the controlled city. “It’s a bloodbath,” says the MSF worker.
Humanitarian workers also fear the impact of war on young people. Francesco Lanino, deputy director of programs and operations in Sudan for the NGO Save the Children, is concerned about the increase in the number of child soldiers. This is a rise that has already been discovered, and which, if left unaddressed, threatens to prolong the war. As long as a truce is not reached and there is no certain stability in the region, Lanino regrets, his team will not be able to intervene.
In another press conference held last Friday in Madrid, the Chargé d’Affairs of the Sudanese Embassy in Spain, Shaza Abdelaziz Kamel Abdelaziz, affirmed the Sudanese government’s “commitment” to a “just and equitable peace” in the country, but condemned, like Lewis, the passivity of the international community. He stressed that the government will not sit down to negotiate with the militia until it “lays down its arms and submits to the authority of the state.”
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