Civilians in Sudan’s northern city of al-Fashir were shot in the streets, struck by drone attacks and run over by trucks during the Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) capture of the city on Oct. 26, witnesses told Reuters, offering a harrowing account of the violence that accompanied the paramilitary group’s takeover.
Three people who fled al-Fashir and spoke to Reuters described mass killings inside the city after the RSF seized the army base.
One witness said RSF trucks surrounded fleeing civilians, sprayed them with machine-gun fire and drove over the wounded and the elderly. “Young people, elderly, children, they ran them over,” he said.
Another witness, identified as Mubarak, said he watched fighters go door-to-door on the second day of the offensive, executing residents in residential streets.
“Fifty or sixty people in a single street… they kill them bang, bang, bang,” he told Reuters, speaking from al-Dabba. He said drone strikes and sustained gunfire made any movement in the streets lethal.
Satellite imagery analysed by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab showed features consistent with bodies in the open, earth disturbances suggesting mass graves, and movements of large vehicles that could indicate removal of bodies or looting, evidence the lab said corroborated reports of mass killings.
The United Nations and humanitarian organisations have raised alarm over reports of summary executions, sexual violence and ethnically-driven atrocities in al-Fashir.
U.N. human rights officials warned that traumatised civilians remain trapped inside parts of the city and voiced concern that abuses may be ongoing.
The RSF has denied some accounts and told Reuters investigations into alleged abuses were under way, saying that reports had been exaggerated by its opponents.
Yet the group’s takeover has already forced tens of thousands to flee, and aid agencies say the city faces an acute humanitarian crisis, with pockets of famine reported across the wider Darfur region.
Survivors who escaped described perilous journeys out of al-Fashir. Some reported that men disappeared during searches and that kidnappings for ransom were taking place.
One woman, Umm Jumaa, said she reached al-Dabba with four grandchildren but had been unable to locate two sons who were soldiers. “Those who didn’t die… they would say, ‘finish them off, finish them off,’” she recalled.
The RSF said on Thursday it had accepted a U.S.- and Arab-backed proposal for a humanitarian ceasefire and expressed openness to talks, but fighting and drone strikes continued in other parts of Sudan in the days that followed, according to eyewitnesses.
Previous ceasefire attempts in the two-and-a-half-year conflict between the RSF and the Sudanese army have repeatedly collapsed.
International investigators and rights groups have called for unfettered access to al-Fashir to document allegations of war crimes and to ensure protection and assistance for survivors.
Humanitarian responders say timely access is critical as wounded and traumatised civilians remain in need of food, shelter and medical care.
Source: Reuters
Written By Rodney Mbua
