Fleeing El Fasher: Executions, Abductions and Ransom on the Road Out

As civilians tried to escape El Fasher after its fall, RSF checkpoints on the exit routes became sites of summary execution, abduction for ransom, and sexual violence. Survivor testimony collected by Amnesty International documents elderly patients shot dead for slowing down a convoy, a man forced to watch his relative's execution filmed for a ransom call, and women raped while fleeing with their children.

Badr*, 26, organized a donkey cart at 1am on 27 October to move his wounded uncle and two other elderly, injured patients out of El Fasher. Roughly 20km west of the city, near the village of Shagara, RSF vehicles encircled the group; fighters bound the men's hands and ordered the three older, injured men into their pickup. When they judged the elderly men too slow to load, a fighter opened fire, killing all three, then shot the donkeys.

"They were enjoying it, they were laughing."
— Badr*, 26, survivor, describing the RSF fighters who killed his relatives

Badr* was blindfolded and held captive with five others, moved between locations over several days. RSF demanded over 20 million Sudanese pounds (approximately $8,880) for his release. While captive, he witnessed an RSF soldier film the execution of one of three detained brothers during a ransom call to the family.

"Look, if you don't send the money as soon as possible, the other two will be killed and you won't even be told that they have been killed."
— RSF fighter, during a filmed ransom call witnessed by Badr*

Ibtisam* fled Abu Shouk with her five children on the morning of 27 October, heading toward Golo, where three RSF fighters stopped the group. She was raped after being forced to leave with the fighters; she later discovered her 14-year-old daughter had also been raped. Her daughter's health deteriorated after reaching Tawila and she died at a clinic there.

Khaltoum*, 29, tried to flee with her 12-year-old daughter on 26 October with a group of over 150 people via the "Babul Amal" gate; RSF fighters separated men from women and killed five men on the spot. She and around 20 other women were then marched over 10km to Zamzam camp, where RSF fighters selected about 11 younger women for a "search." Khaltoum* was raped three times by one fighter while another watched; she said all but one of the 11 selected women were raped.

These accounts, gathered from survivors now in Sudan's Northern state and eastern Chad, form part of the evidentiary basis for the UN's finding that the RSF's conduct during and after the fall of El Fasher amounted to war crimes and, per the Fact-Finding Mission, bore the hallmarks of genocide against non-Arab communities specifically.

Sources

  • Amnesty International -- Source of all four survivor testimonies (Badr*, Ibtisam*, Khaltoum*) on flight from El Fasher