Darfur’s horrific escape from El Fasher

Abdulkader Abdullah Ali suffered severe nerve damage in his leg due to lack of access to medication to treat diabetes during the long siege in the city of Sultan El Fasher.

The 62-year-old walked with a limp but was so panicked that he ran without feeling any pain when paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters finally captured the city in the West Darfur region.

“The morning MSF arrived, there were bullets, lots of bullets, and explosives,” he said.

“People were losing control (with fear), they were running out of their homes, everyone was running in different directions, fathers, sons, daughters – all running.”

The fall of El Fasher after an 18-month siege was a particularly brutal chapter in Sudan’s civil war.

The BBC traveled to a tent camp set up in army-controlled territory in northern Sudan to hear first-hand stories from escapees. The group was monitored by authorities throughout the visit.

Médecins Sans Frontières has been fighting the regular army since a power struggle between them erupted into war in April 2023.

The capture of El Fasher was a major victory for the paramilitary group, driving the army out of its last stronghold in Darfur.

But evidence of mass atrocities has drawn international condemnation and heightened U.S. focus on trying to end the conflict.

WARNING: This report contains details that some readers may find disturbing.

We found Mr. Ali wandering around the camp, located in the desert about 770 kilometers (480 miles) northeast of El Fasher, near the town of Daba.

He was trying to register his family for their tent.

“They (Doctors Without Borders fighters) were shooting at people – elderly people, civilians – with live ammunition, and they would shoot at them,” he told us.

“Some MSF came in a car. If they saw someone breathing, they would drive over them.”

Mr Ali said he would run away whenever possible, crawl along the ground or hide if the threat got too close. He managed to reach Gurni village, a few kilometers away from Fasher.

Gurni is the first stop for many people fleeing the city, including Mohammed Abbaker Adam, a local official at the nearby Zamzam camp for displaced persons.

After Zamzam was captured by SSF in April, Mr Adam retreated to El Fasher and left the day before they captured the city in October.

He grew a white beard to look older, hoping it would lead to more lenient treatment.

“The roads here are full of death,” he said.

“They shot some people directly in front of us and then carried them far away. On the way we saw bodies exposed in the open and not buried. Some had been lying there for two or three days.”

“A lot of people were scattered around,” he added. “We don’t know where they are.”

Some who did not make the long journey to Daba ended up at the humanitarian center in Tawra, some 70 kilometers from El Fasher.

Others crossed into Chad. But the United Nations says less than half of the estimated 260,000 people who lived in the city before its fall are unaccounted for.

Aid agencies believe many people do not make it very far – unable to escape due to danger, detention or the cost of escape.

Mr Adam said militants also raped women, confirming widespread reports of sexual violence.

“They would take a woman behind a tree or take her far away from us, out of sight so you couldn’t see it with your own eyes,” he said.

“But you would hear her yelling, ‘Help me, help me.'” She would come over and say, ‘They raped me.’ ‘”

The camp is mostly made up of women, many of whom declined to be identified to protect those left behind.

A 19-year-old woman told us that MSF fighters took away a girl from their entourage at a checkpoint and they had to leave her behind.

“I’m scared,” she said. “When they took her out of the car at the checkpoint, I was worried they were taking a girl away at every checkpoint. But they just took her and that was it, until we got here.”

She traveled here with her sister and brother. Her father was a soldier and was killed in battle. Her mother was not there when El Fasher collapsed.

So the three brothers and their grandmother fled the city on foot, but their grandmother died before they reached Gurni, leaving them alone.

“We didn’t bring enough water because we didn’t know it was so far away,” the young woman said.

“We were walking and walking and my grandmother fainted. I thought it might be from lack of food or water.

“I checked her pulse but she didn’t wake up, so I found a doctor from a nearby village. He came and said, ‘Your grandmother gave her soul to you.’ I tried to keep myself calm because of my sister and brother, but I didn’t know how to tell my mother.”

They were both particularly worried about their 15-year-old brother, as Médecins Sans Frontières suspected the fugitive had fought against the army.

The boy described his encounter at a checkpoint where all the young men were taken out of the car.

“MSF interrogated us for hours in the sun,” he explained. “They said we were soldiers – some of the older guys probably were.

“MSF soldiers stood above us, circling us, whipping us and threatening us with guns. I lost hope and told them, ‘Whatever you want to do to me, just do it.'”

Eventually, they let him go after his 13-year-old sister told them her father had died and that he was her only brother. They were reunited with their mother in Dhaba camp.

Many described MSF separating older men and women from men of fighting age.

This happened to Abdullah Adam Mohammed from Gurni, who was forced to leave his three young daughters – aged two, four and six. The perfume seller has been looking after his wife since she was killed in a shelling four months ago.

“I left my daughter with the women (who were traveling with us),” he told the BBC. “Then MSF brought large vehicles and we (the men) were afraid that they would recruit us by force. So some of us escaped and fled to the neighborhood.

“All night long I was thinking, how am I going to find my children again? I’ve lost so many people – and I’m afraid I’m going to lose them too.”

Mr. Mohammed escaped, but others did not. Mr Ali said he saw from a distance Médecins Sans Frontières opening fire on a group of people.

“They killed the men, not the women, but the men were shot,” he told the BBC. “A lot of people died and we ran away.”

Mr. Ali and Mr. Adam left Guni on donkeys and headed to the next village, Tur’rah, at night.

Mr Mohammed also arrived in Tula, where he was reunited with his daughters. From there they took a long drive to Dhaba.

Many arrived at the camp empty-handed. They left the city with almost nothing and had to pay to pass checkpoints.

“Doctors Without Borders fighters took everything we had: money, phones, even our nice clothes,” Mr Adam said. “At each stop, they ask you to call your relatives and transfer money to your mobile account before they let you go to the next checkpoint.”

Doctors Without Borders told the BBC it rejected accusations of systematic abuse of civilians.

Dr. Ibrahim Muhaye, an adviser to Médecins Sans Frontières leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, said: “The specific accusations made – of robbery, killings, sexual violence or abuse of civilians – do not reflect our instructions.”

“Any MSF member found responsible for misconduct will be held fully accountable.”

He said the group believed the accusations of widespread atrocities were part of a politically motivated media campaign against what he called Islamist elements in Sudan’s military-led government.

Médecins Sans Frontières has released videos in an attempt to reshape the narrative, showing its officials greeting people fleeing El Fasher, trucks bringing in humanitarian aid and health centers reopening.

Mr Mohammed told the BBC that MSF foot soldiers were more brutal when officers were not present, while Mr Adam dismissed what he said was an attempt by the paramilitary group to improve its image.

“They have this strategy,” he said. “They would gather 10 to 15 people, give us water and film us like they were being nice to us.

“Once the cameras went away, they started beating us up, treating us really badly and taking everything we had.”

Earlier this year, the United States determined that Médecins Sans Frontières had committed genocide in Darfur.

But the Sudanese Armed Forces and its allied militias have also been accused of atrocities, including targeting civilians suspected of supporting SSF and indiscriminate shelling of residential areas.

This particularly brutal chapter in Sudan’s devastating war caught the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump. He pledged to become more directly involved in ongoing U.S. ceasefire efforts.

For those who fled Fasher, this seemed like a distant prospect. They are struck down again and again by this conflict, wondering what will happen next.

But they are very resilient. Mr Ali, who had not heard of Trump’s sudden interest, had been seeking permission from officials to stay in tents at the camp, where, he said, “we can live and rest.”