Zürcher Nachrichten - Sudan's RSF claims arrests as UN warns of 'horrendous' atrocities in Darfur

At war with the army since April 2023, the RSF seized El-Fasher on Sunday, dislodging the army's last stronghold in the western Darfur region after an 18-month siege marked by bombardment and starvation.

Survivors who reached the nearby town of Tawila told AFP of mass killings, children shot before their parents, and civilians beaten and robbed as they fled.

The RSF said late Thursday it had detained several men accused of "violations... during the liberation" of El-Fasher, including one known as Abu Lulu who appeared in multiple TikTok videos committing summary executions.

In one clip verified by AFP, he is seen shooting unarmed men at close range. Another shows him standing among fighters celebrating near dozens of bodies and burnt vehicles.

The RSF released footage appearing to show Abu Lulu behind bars in what they claimed to be a North Darfur prison.

It pledged to ensure "military discipline during wartime", and promised a fair trial for those detained.

Since El-Fasher's fall, videos circulating online have purportedly shown men in RSF uniforms carrying out summary executions around the city, which has been cut off from all communications.

Emtithal Mahmoud, a US-based Sudanese poet from El-Fasher, told AFP she recognised her cousin, Nadifa, in a video shared by RSF accounts, lying dead on the ground.

The UN said the death toll could reach the hundreds, while army allies have accused the RSF of killing over 2,000 civilians.

- 'Horror is continuing' -

On Friday, the United Nations voiced alarm at emerging details of executions, gang rapes and abductions in El-Fasher.

"We have received horrendous accounts of summary executions, mass killings, rapes, attacks against humanitarian workers, looting, abductions and forced displacement," said UN rights office spokesman Seif Magango.

Magango called for "independent, prompt, transparent and thorough investigations" into all alleged breaches of international law.

The World Health Organization, meanwhile, said it had verified that at least 460 patients and others were killed Tuesday in attacks on the Saudi Maternity Hospital -- one of the last still functioning in El-Fasher.

On Thursday, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the Security Council that "the horror is continuing" in El-Fasher, and questioned the RSF's commitment to investigating violations amid the "appalling news" from North Darfur.

RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo had earlier vowed accountability for "anyone who has made a mistake", while an RSF-led coalition maintained many incriminating videos were "fabricated" by the army.

Satellite imagery analysed by Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab showed clusters in the city "consistent with adult human bodies", and discoloration that may indicate "pools of blood", its director told AFP.

Sudanese analyst Kholood Khair said she was sceptical that the purported arrests would bring an end to the violence.

"We expect these atrocities to continue, particularly against non-Arab groups," she told AFP, citing communities such as the Zaghawa, Fur, Berti and Masalit in Darfur.

In 2023, the RSF -- descended from the Janjaweed Arab militias accused of genocide in Darfur two decades ago -- was blamed for massacres against the Masalit tribe in West Darfur capital El-Geneina, killing up to 15,000 people.

"Overall, these patterns reflect a disturbing repetition of ethnic tensions from 20 years ago, now compounded by disputes over resource control and political power in the country," Khair said.

More than 62,000 people have fled El-Fasher between Sunday and Wednesday, according to the UN's migration agency, while the fate of tens of thousands of civilians still trapped in the city remains unknown.

- Bloodshed in Kordofan -

Fletcher warned that the bloodshed was spreading beyond Darfur, with atrocities reported in the neighbouring Kordofan region.

According to UN figures, between Sunday and Wednesday more than 35,000 people fled five localities in North Kordofan state, including Bara, which lies north of state capital El-Obeid on a key route to Darfur and which was overrun by paramilitaries on Saturday.

Martha Pobee, the assistant UN secretary-general for Africa, highlighted "reports of large-scale atrocities perpetrated" by the RSF in Bara, including "ethnically motivated" reprisals.

At least 50 civilians were killed there in recent days, both in fighting and executions, including five Red Crescent volunteers, according to the UN.

Kordofan is "clearly going to be the next area of military escalation", analyst Khair said.

The RSF Thursday accused the army of launching a drone attack on a school in eastern North Kordofan, claiming dozens of students and teachers were killed or injured -- an allegation the army denied.

AFP could not independently verify the attack.

Both the army and the RSF have faced war crimes accusations over the course of the conflict.

The US has previously determined the RSF committed genocide in Darfur.

El-Fasher's fall to the RSF gave it full control over all five state capitals in Darfur, effectively splitting Sudan along an east-west axis. The paramilitaries have established a self-declared rival government in Darfur.

The army holds Sudan's north, east and centre.

A.Wyss--NZN