Over 60,000 Flee Sudanese City After Takeover by RSF Paramilitary Group, United Nations Reports

Per the United Nations refugee organization, in excess of 60,000 individuals have fled the city in Sudan of el-Fasher, which was captured by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces during the weekend.

Reports indicate multiple executions and crimes against humanity as paramilitary forces stormed the city following an extended encirclement featuring food shortages and intense shelling.

The exodus of those running from the violence towards the community of Tawila, about 80km (50 miles) west of el-Fasher, had accelerated in the recent days, per UNHCR representative.

They were describing horrendous accounts of abuses, including sexual violence, and the humanitarian group was having trouble to secure enough housing and food for them.

Every child was suffering from malnutrition, she commented.

Estimates suggest that over 150,000 individuals are presently trapped in el-Fasher, which had been the military's final stronghold in the western part of Darfur.

The RSF has denied widespread allegations that the executions in el-Fasher are driven by ethnicity and mirror a practice of the Arab fighters focusing on non-Arab populations.

Yet the paramilitary group has detained one of its fighters, Abu Lulu, who has been accused of extrajudicial killings.

The group shared footage showing the member's detention following identification that he was responsible for the killing of several civilians close to el-Fasher.

Digital platform has acknowledged that it has banned the profile connected to Lulu. Uncertainty exists whether he had controlled the profile in his name.

Sudan was plunged into a domestic fighting in April 2023 when a vicious power struggle broke out between its army and the RSF.

It has resulted in a food crisis and claims of ethnic cleansing in the Darfur area.

In excess of 150,000 individuals have died in the war around the country, and roughly 12 million have fled their residences in what the United Nations has described as the biggest global humanitarian crisis.

The takeover of el-Fasher strengthens the geographic split in the country, with the Rapid Support Forces now in command of Sudan's west and significant areas of neighbouring Kordofan to the southern area, and the army holding the main city, Khartoum, central and eastern regions along the Red Sea.

The two warring rivals had been collaborators - gaining control together in a takeover in 2021 - but fell out over an foreign-endorsed plan to transition to civilian leadership.