Sudanese refugees walk 770km through desert past bodies and armed men after RSF takeover of El-Fasher, describing terror and humiliation.
AL DABBAH: Survivors of the bloody takeover of El-Fasher walked for days through the desert to escape the Sudanese city now overrun by paramilitary forces.
Several gave harrowing accounts describing scenes of terror as nearly 100,000 people fled the last army stronghold in western Darfur after its fall to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces on October 26.
Now sheltering at Al-Dabbah refugee camp about 770 kilometres to the northeast, they described seeing bodies scattered on the roadside and enduring hunger, thirst and repeated assaults.
Local authorities say around 50,000 people have reached Al-Dabbah since the RSF besieged El-Fasher in May 2024.
“We arrived here completely exhausted. We thought we were going to die,” said Zahra Youssef, one of the survivors now sheltering in Al-Dabbah.
“There was no water, no food. The roads were impassable. It was desert. It took us 16 days to get here.”
Hussein Mohamed, who fled the city with his family, described the journey as “inhuman”.
“The roads were terrifying, terrifying because of the bodies,” he said. “It looked like a scene from a horror movie.”
At a checkpoint, “they made us get out of our vehicles. They took nine young men, accusing them of being soldiers. They began torturing them.”
Suleiman Mohamed said the paramilitary fighters stripped women and humiliated them.
“They touched the women, even taking off their undergarments,” he said. “They searched us like we weren’t human beings.”
Mohamed Adam, 12, fled with his mother and siblings and described how fighters threatened his sisters.
“They wanted to rape my sisters,” he said. “My mother told them, ‘Rape me instead, but not the girls.'”
For Mazaher Ibrahim, walking in a group offered little safety from the RSF fighters.
“The RSF prefer unmarried girls,” she said. “They boast about killing and about taking girls’ virginity.”
Those who survived the 770-kilometre trek now find themselves in overcrowded camps in northern Sudan with little food or medical care.
Over more than two and a half years, the war between the RSF and Sudan’s army has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million people.
Talks for a humanitarian truce remain stalled as both sides consolidate their territorial control and political legitimacy. – AFP
