“No mercy”: Soldier recounts fleeing RSF massacre in el-Fasher - As-salaam ‘alaykum
As-salaam ‘alaykum - I wanted to share this because it’s important to hear what people lived through in el-Fasher.
Abubakr Ahmed was prepared to die defending the ground he loved from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). For 550 days he belonged to a local popular resistance, a neighbourhood group that worked with the army to try to protect el-Fasher during this long civil war. The city, the last army holdout in much of Darfur, fell on 26 October.
According to the Sudanese Armed Forces, they negotiated a withdrawal to avoid a bloodbath, but that left around 250,000 civilians exposed to the RSF. Ahmed says he and a small group of young men “shot” their way out during the final fighting. He took shrapnel in the abdomen when an RPG blew up a car nearby, but he survived while many others did not.
“The RSF killed civilians and left their corpses in the streets,” Ahmed, 29, told reporters after escaping. “They were killed without mercy.”
Local monitors report that in the first three days after the RSF seized el-Fasher at least 1,500 people were killed, including patients and companions from the al-Saud hospital - a figure confirmed by health agencies. Several videos verified by investigators show RSF fighters over piles of bodies and executing unarmed young men.
More than 33,000 people have already fled to nearby towns like Tawila and Tine, about 60km away. But most civilians remain hidden in el-Fasher, terrified of RSF gunmen. Others are making brutal treks across open desert to reach safety, often separated from family and without food or water.
Many of the displaced are from sedentary non-Arab tribes who say they’ve long faced persecution by nomadic Arab tribes that now form much of the RSF’s ranks. “People won’t stay in el-Fasher because they’re terrified of the RSF. They don’t trust them,” said one survivor, Mohammed. He added sadly that communities are now splitting along ethnic lines.
RSF leader Mohamad Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo said he would investigate reports of abuses, but survivors and analysts say the killings look like a deliberate attempt to ethnically cleanse non-Arab communities. Satellite analysts and humanitarian researchers warn that mass killings occurred as people tried to flee, and actual death tolls are likely higher than current estimates.
UN and aid officials have described scenes in el-Fasher as horrific, likening them to past genocides. Many local relief volunteers and staff who ran community kitchens and other services are missing or in hiding, and aid groups say they fear for their lives - the RSF has repeatedly targeted local relief workers.
Governments and international organisations issued condemnations and urged the RSF to protect civilians and follow international law. But survivors and experts say more decisive diplomatic pressure could have helped prevent these atrocities. They argue that a pattern of impunity - and reluctance by some diplomats to sanction RSF leaders for fear of derailing talks - empowered perpetrators and made such crimes more likely.
May Allah protect the innocent, grant shifa to the wounded, and bring justice to the victims. Please keep the people of Darfur in your duas and, if you can, support trusted humanitarian efforts helping those who have fled.
https://www.aljazeera.com/feat