Fleeing El Fasher, Survivors Recount RSF Killings, Humiliation

2 November 2025

A group of displaced people fleeing El Fasher arrived in Tawila after a long ordeal.

Sudan Media Forum

TAWILA, November 2, 2025 (Sudan Tribune) – Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters stripped Madiha al-Tom Bashir of her clothes as she fled El Fasher in North Darfur, forcing her to leave the unburied body of her child, who had been shot dead in front of her.

Bashir’s testimony is one of many detailing alleged atrocities committed by RSF elements after they captured El Fasher on Oct. 26. Survivors and witnesses report widespread killings, abuse, and looting, all carried out amid a communications blackout.

RSF forces pursued fleeing civilians on the roads, survivors said, gathering many in the Gorni area. Thousands remain stranded there, including children separated from their families.

Bashir, who fled the Al-Sahafa and Al-Daraja Al-Oula neighbourhoods, told Sudan Tribune the shelling began around 2 a.m. “I was displaced… after shells rained down on the house,” she said.

She described taking the western road towards Gorni, passing through “meticulous and humiliating” RSF checkpoints.

“They took off our clothes, seized our money and phones… We were just walking, fleeing… among us were elderly and sick people.”

Her testimony turned darker: “Before my eyes, an RSF element shot my son, killing him, and told me to leave… I left my son’s body without being able to bury him, and my husband was arrested, and we know nothing about him.”

“On the road between El Fasher and Tawila, bodies are scattered all along the way,” Bashir added. “Any man fleeing El Fasher was either killed or captured.”

Humiliation and executions

Other survivors described similar experiences. Fatima al-Tom Abdulrahman told Sudan Tribune she endured checkpoints on the road to the Abu Shouk camp that were “harsher than death itself.”

“The soldiers forced us to stand for a long time under the sun, while they rained blows and racial slurs on us,” Abdulrahman said, adding they were called “slaves” and other derogatory terms.

She said she witnessed RSF fighters execute two of her relatives, aged between 30 and 45, accusing them of being aligned with the army. Abdulrahman fainted from exhaustion and was separated from the men with the other women.

“The men who remained there were field-executed,” she continued. “The soldiers deliberately made us hear their screams as they fired on them, chanting, ‘Falangai, you dogs!'”

Torture and extortion

Daoud Mohammed Abkar, who was at a shelter in the Al-Daraja Al-Oula neighborhood, described the RSF incursion on Oct. 26.

“People were running in all directions, fleeing the falling shells and raining bullets, amid the screams of women, children, and the elderly,” Abkar told Sudan Tribune.

He said an RSF group near El Fasher University stopped and beat them, separating men into two groups by age.

“I saw with my own eyes RSF elements lining up and killing seven of the young men who were with us after accusing them of fighting with the army,” he said.

Abkar’s group was later allowed to leave but was “severely beaten with sticks and whips” at the Gorni gate. “They were beating everyone mercilessly… We left behind people who likely died from the severity of the torture.”

Abkar also described rampant exploitation on the road, with drivers charging 500,000 Sudanese pounds per person. Those who walked, he said, faced arrest and looting by RSF-allied tribal militias.

The violence has reportedly shifted to systematic extortion, according to human rights lawyer Abdulbasit al-Hajj.

“Civilians fleeing El Fasher are being subjected to organized kidnapping operations by the RSF,” al-Hajj told Sudan Tribune, “which detains hundreds… and extorts their families for huge sums.”

He said RSF “militias” contact relatives abroad, demanding ransoms up to 100 million Sudanese pounds (about $170,000) per person. “Non-compliance leads to the torture of the captives and videos being sent to their families to increase pressure,” al-Hajj said.

Three survivors, including a doctor, confirmed to Sudan Tribune that they were kidnapped, tortured, and forced to make ransom videos. One said his family negotiated a 20 million pound (SDG) payment for his release. Another relative said his family paid 18 million SDG, but the RSF cut off contact after receiving the money.

‘Appalling’ humanitarian situation

The violence has triggered a humanitarian collapse in Tawila, which is receiving the bulk of the displaced, said Adam Rajal, spokesman for the General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees in Darfur.

“The humanitarian situation in Tawila is extremely bad and appalling,” Rajal told Sudan Tribune.

He said the area sees a continuous “daily and around-the-clock” flow of new arrivals from El Fasher.

“The displaced… suffer from acute shortages of food and safe drinking water,” Rajal said, noting many are “forced to drink unclean water.”

He confirmed new arrivals reported “grave human rights violations, including killing, sexual violence, rape, looting, humiliation, and intimidation.”

Rajal said about 11,000 new displaced people arrived in October, bringing the total in the area to over one million. This includes “between 450 and 500 children who arrived without their families.”

He called for an immediate ceasefire and a “Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue,” urging international agencies to “intervene urgently to save the lives of hundreds of thousands.”

The Sudan Media Forum and its member institutions publish this material, prepared by Sudan Tribune, to document the horrific violations committed by the Rapid Support Forces against civilians fleeing El Fasher after its capture, including mass killing, looting, and systematic humiliation. It also reveals the rampant phenomenon of kidnapping and financial extortion against the displaced, amid disturbing international silence.