Survivors of the El-Fasher siege tell the BBC of RSF brutality

Shaken, scratched and left with only the clothes he was wearing, Ezeldin Hassan Moussa described the brutality of the Sudan Rapid Support Force (RSF) after the paramilitary group took control of the town of El-Fasher in the Darfur region.

He says its fighters tortured and killed men trying to escape.

Now in the town of Tawila, lying exhausted on a mat under a gazebo, Ezeldin is one of several thousand people who have made it to relative safety after fleeing what the United Nations described as “horrendous” violence.

On Wednesday, RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo acknowledged “violations” in el-Fasher and said they would be investigated. A day later, a senior UN official said the RSF said they had arrested some suspects.

About an 80 km (50 mi) journey from el-Fasher, Tawila is one of several places where those lucky enough to escape RSF fighters flee.

“We left El-Fasher four days ago. The suffering we encountered along the way was unimaginable,” says Ezeldin.

“They separated us into groups and beat us. The scenes were extremely brutal. We saw people killed in front of our eyes. We saw people being beaten. It was really horrible.

“I myself was hit on the head, back and legs. They beat me with sticks. They wanted to execute us completely. But when the opportunity opened, we escaped, and others in the front were detained.”

Ezeldin says he joined a group of fugitives who took shelter in a building, moving at night and sometimes literally crawling on the ground in an attempt to stay hidden.

“Our belongings were stolen,” he says. “Phones, clothes – everything. Literally even my shoes were stolen. There was nothing left.

“We went without food for three days walking the streets. By the grace of God we managed.”

Those in Tawila told the BBC that men who travel are particularly likely to be vetted by the RSF, with fighters targeting anyone suspected of being a soldier.

Ezeldin is one of about 5,000 people believed to have arrived in Tawila since el-Fasher fell on Sunday.

Many have made the entire journey on foot, traveling for three or four days to escape the violence.

A Tawila-based freelance journalist working for the BBC conducted one of the first interviews with some of those who made the journey.

Near Ezeldin sits Ahmed Ismail Ibrahim, his body bandaged in several places.

He says his eye was injured in an artillery strike and he left the city on Sunday after receiving hospital treatment.

He and six other men were stopped by RSF fighters.

“Four – they killed them in front of us. They beat them and killed them,” he says, adding that he was shot three times.

Ahmed recounts how the militants demanded to see the phones of the three survivors and searched their messages.

One fighter, he says, finally told them, “Okay, get up and go.” They fled into the bushes.

“My brothers,” he adds, “they did not abandon me.

“We walked for about 10 minutes, then rested for 10 minutes and continued until we found peace now.”

In the next tent at the clinic run by medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Yusra Ibrahim Mohamed describes how she made the decision to flee the city after her husband, a soldier in the Sudanese army, was killed.

“My husband was in the artillery,” she says. “He was on his way home and was killed during the attacks.

“We suffered. Then the clashes and attacks continued. We managed to escape.

“We left three days ago,” she says, “moving in different directions from the artillery areas. The people leading us didn’t know what was going on.

“If anyone resists, they are beaten or robbed. They will take everything you have. People can even be executed. I saw dead bodies in the streets.”

Alfadil Doohan works in the MSF clinic.

He and his colleagues are providing emergency aid to the arrivals – among them, according to him, there are 500 in need of urgent medical care.

“Most of the new arrivals are old men and women or children,” says the medic.

“The wounded are suffering and some of them are already amputees.

“So they’re really suffering a lot. And we’re trying to just get them some kind of support and medical care.”

Those arriving this week in Tawila join hundreds of thousands there who have fled previous rounds of violence in el-Fasher.

Before its capture by the RSF on Sunday, the city had been under siege for 18 months.

Those trapped inside were bombarded by a barrage of deadly artillery and airstrikes as the army and paramilitaries battled for el-Fasher.

And they were plunged into a severe hunger crisis by RSF’s blockade of supplies and aid.

Hundreds of thousands were displaced in April when the RSF seized control of the Zamzam camp near the city, at the time one of the main sites housing people forced to flee fighting elsewhere.

Some experts have expressed concern about the relatively low number of arrivals in places like Tawila now.

“This is actually a cause for concern for us,” said Caroline Beauvoir, who works with refugees in neighboring Chad for the aid agency Solidarités International.

“In the last couple of days we’ve had about 5,000 people that have arrived, which considering we believe about a quarter of a million people are still in the city, that’s obviously not that many,” she says.

“We see the conditions that the arrivals are in. They are severely malnourished, severely dehydrated, sick or injured and obviously traumatized by what they have seen in the city or on the road.

“We believe that many people are currently stranded in various places between Tawila and el-Fasher and are unable to move forward – either because of their physical condition or because of the insecurity of the road, where the militias are unfortunately attacking people who are trying to find safe haven.”

For Ezeldin, the relief of reaching safety is tempered by fears for those still behind him on the journey.

“My message is that public roads must be secured for citizens,” he urges, “or humanitarian aid must be sent to the streets.

“People are in critical condition – they can’t move, talk, seek help.

“Help must reach them because many are missing and suffering.