Following global outrage over apparent atrocities during the capture of al-Fashar in North Darfur, Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces said they have detained several RSF fighters.
Since the seizure of al-Fashar over the weekend, a number of extremely graphic videos have emerged showing mass killings and other crimes being carried out by RSF forces.
One of those detained is believed to be a man known as “Abu Lulu”, who appears in several videos circulating online. The French AFP news agency reported that he had been recorded executing unarmed people.
AFP said it had confirmed a clip showing Abu Lulu firing at unarmed people at close range. Another shows him standing amid dozens of dead bodies and burnt vehicles.
RSF released a video showing Abu Lulu behind bars in what the group claimed to be a North Darfur prison.
Rights NGO says video has been verified
The Center for Information Resilience – an NGO that exposes human rights violations – announced that it had identified six different RSF fighters from available video material, including Abu Lulu.
The CIR reported that it had analyzed footage from al-Fashar and confirmed that “mass killings are taking place.”
“Casualties likely included both combatants and civilians, as the CIR identified women and men in civilian clothes among those killed,” the NGO reported.
In a briefing to the UN Security Council, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Thursday there were “credible reports of widespread executions” following the RSF’s entry into al-Fashar.
“We cannot hear the screams, but … the horror continues,” he said, adding that there were reports of rape, mutilation and killing with impunity.
Arjan Hehenkamp, Sudan’s crisis chief at the International Rescue Committee, told DW survivors’ stories of “bodies lying on the streets, wounded screaming for help, and those killed.”
He said the international committee must put pressure on RSF’s regional supporters to “press RSF to create safe conditions for civilians, safe corridors for them to escape.”
The siege and fall of al-Fashar
El-Fashar is the capital of North Darfur state and was the Sudanese army’s last stronghold in Darfur, amid a war with the RSF since April 2023, which has caused one of the largest humanitarian crises worldwide.
After an 18-month siege marked by mass starvation and heavy bombardment, it fell to the RSF.
Shortly afterwards, reports and videos of atrocities began to circulate, accusing RSF fighters of massacring those they encountered.
El-Fashar has been cut off from all communication since his capture, but AFP reported that survivors who managed to reach the nearby town of Tawila spoke of mass killings, children being shot in front of their parents, and civilians beaten and looted as they fled.
Edited by: Darko Janjevic