🔗 Share this article More than 60,000 Run from Sudanese City After Takeover by RSF Paramilitary Group, UN Reports Many are attempting to reach the town of Tawila but encounter harassment, extortion and mistreatment from fighters during their journey According to the UNHCR, more than 60,000 individuals have left the city in Sudan of el-Fasher, which was seized by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces during the weekend. Accounts suggest summary killings and human rights violations as paramilitary forces entered the city following an 18-month encirclement marked by food shortages and intense shelling. The movement of those running from the conflict 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 shocking accounts of abuses, such as rape, and the humanitarian group was finding it difficult to secure enough shelter and nourishment for them. Each child was affected by malnutrition, she commented. It is estimated that in excess of 150,000 residents are currently stranded in el-Fasher, which had been the army's final bastion in the western region of Darfur. The RSF has rejected broad allegations that the killings in el-Fasher are based on ethnic factors and mirror a practice of the Arab militia groups targeting ethnic minorities. Yet the RSF has custodied one of its members, Abu Lulu, who has been implicated in on-the-spot executions. The organization distributed video revealing the member's apprehension subsequent to verification that he was behind the execution of numerous unarmed men near el-Fasher. Social media platform has verified that it has banned the profile linked to Lulu. The status remains unclear whether he had operated the profile in his name. Sudan was entered a domestic fighting in April 2023 when a intense contest for control broke out between its military and the Rapid Support Forces. This has caused a famine and accusations of genocide in the western Sudan. More than 150,000 individuals have lost their lives in the war around the country, and about 12 million have abandoned their dwellings in what the United Nations has termed the most extensive humanitarian disaster. The capture of el-Fasher solidifies the territorial division in the country, with the RSF now in control of Sudan's west and significant areas of adjacent Kordofan to the south, and the military controlling the main city, Khartoum, the center and east along the Red Sea. The competing factions had been allies - taking over together in a takeover in 2021 - but split over an internationally backed initiative to advance to civilian rule.