Sudan’s military commander confirmed the withdrawal of troops from El Fasher, their last western stronghold, after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) declared control of the city.
Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said in a televised speech Monday evening that he had authorized the withdrawal in response to “the systematic destruction and killing of civilians.”
Residents who fled el-Fasher told the BBC they were fearful and distressed as they had lost contact with relatives still trapped in the city.
The Yale University Humanitarian Institute said satellite images showed “mass killings” since El Fasher fell.
The United Nations has also raised alarm over reports of atrocities committed by the RSF in recent days and called for the safe passage of trapped civilians.
RSF has consistently denied allegations of killing civilians.
The fall of El Fasher could mark a major turning point in Sudan’s civil war, which has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly 12 million since April 2023.
The RSF now fully controls the vast Darfur region, with its forces confined to the north, east and center of Sudan.
RSF fighters laid siege to el-Fasher for 18 months, trapping hundreds of thousands of civilians in the city and sparking a hunger crisis.
A man who escaped El Fasher told the BBC that several of his relatives had been ‘massacred’ in the city, but that he was unable to contact surviving family members as communication lines were cut off after the RSF took over.
“They were gathered together in one place and all murdered. Now we don’t know what happened to those who are still alive,” he said.
The RSF has been accused of committing mass atrocities in El Fasher since Sunday, when the paramilitary group declared it had taken over the city.
Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Institute said satellite images had discovered a group of what appeared to be human bodies near an RSF vehicle and next to a 57km-long earthen wall that now surrounds the city. This suggests that civilians may have been executed for trying to flee.
The Joint Forces, a coalition of Darfuri armed groups that support the military, said 2,000 civilians have been killed since the city fell. There is no independent confirmation of this.
Aid groups now fear massacres of non-Arab ethnic groups trapped in El Fasher. RSF has denied targeting them despite evidence of war crimes presented by the United Nations and human rights groups.
The European Union said “all warring parties want to deescalate the conflict,” while the African Union condemned “allegations of war crimes and racist massacres of civilians.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the only hospital still partially functioning in El Fascher was attacked on Sunday.
It is reported that one nurse died in this assault.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “gravely concerned” by the incident. It condemned the current situation in the city as a reported “violation of international humanitarian law.”
In his speech on Monday, General Burhan condemned the international community’s inaction to end RSF atrocities and pledged to fight “until this land is cleansed.”
“We can turn the situation around every time and return all the lands desecrated by these traitors to the fold of the nation,” he said.
