Called “hell on earth” – ‘was like a slaughterhouse’

Hundreds of thousands trapped in “hell on earth”

Nivette Dawod

Published 17.30

 

Families who fled from el-Fasher in a refugee camp in Tawila in Darfur, Sudan. Photo: Ho/AP

Hundreds of thousands of people are trapped in al-Fashir.

The city is now controlled by the RSF militia – who are massacring civilians.

– It is hell on earth, with a lot of weapons, says UNICEF spokesman Sheldon Yett.

At the end of October, the paramilitary militia RSF (Rapid Support Forces) in Sudan took over the city of al-Fashir, after more than 500 days of siege.

The massacres were so extensive that the blood and dead bodies could be seen from space.

– It was like a slaughterhouse, says Tajal-Rahman, a man in his 50s, to the AP news agency.

– There were bodies and people bleeding everywhere and no one could help them.

His testimony can be considered unique.

 

Satellite image of al-Fashir taken on Monday, which according to Yale researchers shows bodies in the streets. Photo: AP/TT (Montage)

FACTS

The world's worst humanitarian crisis

• Since April 2023, a civil war has been going on between the Sudanese army (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
• The fighting is at its worst in the Darfur region, where al-Fashir recently fell to the RSF after more than 500 days of siege, with reports of massacres and ethnic cleansing.
• In northern Darfur, the highest level of famine has been recorded in 15 months.
• The situation in Sudan is described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The UN estimates that over 30 million people are in need of emergency aid and 11 million people have become refugees in their own country.
• The country also has a bloody modern history. Between 2003 and 2005, government forces and the RSF's predecessor, the Janjaweed, killed hundreds of thousands of people in a genocide in Darfur.

The fact box was created with the support of AI tools and is quality assured by Aftonbladet.

Only 15 percent of al-Fashir's approximately 250,000 residents have managed to escape.

The rest are feared to be killed, captured or trapped somewhere in the city, according to Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), which has documented the RSF-led massacres.

More than in Gaza

HRL warns in the report of "very little civilian movement" since RSF took control. This suggests that few, if any, manage to escape. 

The head of HRL, Nathaniel Raymond, told  the Brittish The Observer last week that he had never seen such a rapid progression of killings.

- In the 26 years I have been working on this, I have never seen violence spread with such speed. We could have more dead on the ground in al-Fashir by the beginning of next week than were killed in two years of fighting in Gaza.

The RSF militia appears to be acting quickly.

HRL has been following developments for several days since the militia took over al-Fashir on Sunday, October 26.

FACTS

RSF (Rapid Support Forces)

• The RSF is a Sudanese paramilitary force that has its roots in the Janjaweed militias, which were active in the Darfur region in the 2000s.
• RSF and groups affiliated with the militia have repeatedly been accused of serious crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and even genocide in Darfur.
• The current armed conflict in Sudan started on April 15, 2023, when fighting broke out in the capital Khartoum between the Sudanese army and the RSF. The background is, among other things, a power struggle between the military leadership and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, but also disagreement over how paramilitary forces should be integrated with the army.
• During the latest conflict, the RSF has carried out several very bloody massacres against civilians, both in the Darfur region and in other parts of Sudan.
• The US government has publicly determined that the RSF committed genocide, and the organization is under sanctions from both the US and the EU.

The fact box is created with the support of AI tools and is quality assured by Aftonbladet.