The UN Security Council condemned on Thursday paramilitaries' reported "atrocities" in El-Fasher in western Sudan, where an aid group and activists have described a dire situation since the city's fall.
The Rapid Support Forces' capture on Sunday of El-Fasher, the last army holdout in the vast region of Darfur, came after more than 18 months of brutal siege and sparked fears of a return to the ethnically targeted atrocities of 20 years ago.
During an emergency meeting Thursday, the Security Council "condemned the assault by the Rapid Support Forces on El-Fasher and its devastating impact on the civilian population", recalling an earlier resolution demanding the paramilitaries lift their siege.
Members of the council "also condemned reported atrocities being perpetrated by the RSF against the civilian population, including summary executions and arbitrary detentions, and expressed grave concern at the heightened risk of large-scale atrocities, including ethnically motivated" ones.
Some 70 kilometers (40 miles) away in Tawila, where some of the civilians displaced from El-Fasher have fled, John Ocheibi from the NGO ALIMA said people arriving in the town had endured a difficult journey.
"The situation has taken a dramatic turn since Sunday. Women and children are coming in in extremely bad shape," Ocheibi told AFP by phone from the NGO's clinic in southern Tawila.
"Some of them haven't eaten for days and have been walking a long route. Others were beaten... and threatened along the routes. And some are mourning."
The Emergency Response Room in Tawila, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across Sudan throughout the conflict, said the nearby region was "facing a serious humanitarian situation as new waves of displacement continue."
It appealed to the UN on Thursday to "move swiftly... to support displaced families in Tawila."
The head of the RSF, Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, apologized on Wednesday to "the inhabitants of El-Fasher for the disaster that has befallen them" and promised to investigate the widespread allegations of atrocities.
But he reiterated his commitment to "Sudanese unity through peace or through war."
Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said Monday after El-Fasher's fall that his camp was still "determined to continue until we purify this land."
Pro-democracy activists from El-Fasher, who have been documenting abuses since the start of the war, said gunfire could still be heard on Wednesday evening in the west of the city, "where a few remaining soldiers are fighting."
'Even Darker Hell'
UN chief Antonio Guterres said Thursday that he was "gravely concerned by the recent military escalation" in the city, calling for an "immediate end" to the fighting.
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the Security Council that El-Fasher was "already the scene of catastrophic levels of human suffering (but) has descended into an even darker hell," pointing to "credible reports" of executions.
"We cannot hear the screams, but, as we sit here today, the horror is continuing. Women and girls are being raped, and people are being mutilated and killed with utter impunity," he added.
Some residents who fled El-Fasher for Tawila have described to AFP seeing bodies littering the streets and their children killed in front of them as the paramilitaries pushed into the city.
Reports that 460 people were killed at the Saudi Maternity Hospital, the last partially functional hospital in El-Fasher, have sparked widespread outrage.
Diene Keita, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), described the deaths, which have been corroborated by satellite images, as "an unspeakable atrocity."
The RSF said in a statement on their Telegram channel that they "categorically deny the fabrications being circulated by hostile entities" about the killings at the hospital.
Both warring sides have been accused of committing atrocities throughout the conflict.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the Security Council, the EU, United Kingdom, and other countries to impose sanctions on the RSF leadership.
"If the world doesn't act urgently, civilians will bear the full brunt of more heinous crimes," it said on Wednesday.
'Rape, Pillaging and Killings'
More than 36,000 people have fled El-Fasher since Sunday, with many heading for Tawila, which was already hosting more than 650,000 displaced people, according to UN estimates.
Those fleeing "have faced serious abuses along the way, including rape, pillaging, and killings," HRW said, adding that it had verified social media videos showing executions of apparent civilians.
The so-called Quad group, comprising the United States, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, has held talks over several months aimed at securing a truce in the war, which has been raging since April 2023.
But those talks have reached an impasse, according to an official close to the negotiations.
The UAE has been accused by the UN of supplying arms to the RSF, allegations it denies, while the Sudanese national army has received support from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as Turkey and Iran, according to observers.
During their latest meetings, the Quad countries reiterated a peace proposal made in September, which the army-aligned government immediately rejected.
The fall of El-Fasher gave paramilitaries control over all five state capitals in Darfur, risking partitioning the country.
Analysts say that Sudan is now effectively split on an east-west axis, with the RSF dominating all of Darfur and parts of the south while the army is entrenched along the Nile and Red Sea in the north, east and centre.
AFP
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