Thousands of Sudanese women displaced from the provincial capital of North Darfur have recounted harrowing ordeals as they fled intense fighting, airstrikes, and gunfire over the weekend.
The city of al-Fashir fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Sunday, following an 18-month siege that left residents trapped and desperate. Witnesses described scenes of chaos as RSF fighters stormed the city, going door to door and attacking civilians.
“They were beating and shooting people, women, children, everyone,” said one survivor, her voice trembling.
According to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 26,000 residents managed to escape the city. Most arrived exhausted and dehydrated in Tawila, a town about 60 kilometres west of al-Fashir.
Aid agencies report that conditions in Tawila are dire. The area already shelters over 650,000 displaced people, stretching food, water, and medical resources to breaking point. Families are now living in open spaces under makeshift shelters, many having lost everything along the way.
“I came here barefoot; even my shoes were taken,” said Aisha Ismael, who fled al-Fashir on Saturday.
The United Nations says it has received credible reports of grave human rights violations during the assault, including summary executions and sexual violence, particularly against women and girls.
Al-Fashir was the last of Darfur’s five state capitals to fall to the RSF, led by General Mohammad Hamdan Daglo. The group has been fighting Sudan’s army for control of the country for more than two years, in a conflict the UN estimates has killed over 40,000 people.
The ongoing war has plunged parts of Sudan, including al-Fashir, into famine, and created what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. More than 14 million people have been displaced, either within Sudan or across its borders.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has opened investigations into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both the RSF and Sudan’s military during the conflict.
