Torture, bloodshed and despair: Tens of thousands of people remain trapped in El Fasher, Sudan

Since paramilitaries took over the city most civilians have been unable to flee, and the testimonies and evidence gathered suggest that killings, rapes, and looting are being perpetrated on a massive scale

Marc Español
Cairo - NOV 27, 2025 - 10:38 EST

From the moment Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took over the capital of North Darfur, El Fasher — after subjecting it to a suffocating siege lasting more than 500 days — accounts of the atrocities they were feared to be committing began to follow in quick succession: cases of mass executions, sexual violence, torture, and kidnappings.

Most of the testimonies came from those who left the city and managed to reach a safe place from which to recount what they had witnessed. But, unlike what has happened in almost all the areas occupied by the rebels since the outbreak of the war against the Sudanese army in April 2023, there was no mass exodus of the population from El Fasher.

In recent months, the United Nations had estimated that around 260,000 people remained trapped in the city. And, although some 100,000 civilians escaped in the days following its fall, humanitarian groups deployed at relatively safe reception points away from El Fasher warned that the flow of arrivals was far below expectations.

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“The truth is, nobody knows how many people have died or how many remain trapped,” says U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who recently traveled to Tawila, a town near El Fasher. “Tens of thousands of people have managed to reach Tawila, but it’s clear that many are not leaving El Fasher, which raises very alarming questions about their whereabouts.”
https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-11-27/torture-bloodshed-and-despair-tens-of-thousands-of-people-remain-trapped-in-el-fasher-sudan.html