“No One Could Stop It”: Survivors Describe Mass Rapes, Killings and Displacement After El‑Fasher Falls to RSF

Survivors recount mass sexual violence, killings and looting after El‑Fasher fell

Amira, a Sudanese mother who fled the western city of El‑Fasher, says she wakes every day trembling, haunted by scenes of mass rape and violence she witnessed as paramilitary fighters swept into the city.

After an 18‑month siege marked by starvation and bombardment, El‑Fasher — the last army-held stronghold in western Darfur — fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on October 26. Communications in the city have been largely cut off, and multiple reports since the takeover describe mass killings, widespread sexual violence, attacks on aid workers, looting and abductions.

“The rapes were gang rapes. Mass rape in public, rape in front of everyone and no one could stop it,” Amira said from a makeshift shelter in Tawila, about 70 kilometres west of El‑Fasher.

Amira spoke during an online meeting organised by campaign group Avaaz; the participants were given pseudonyms for their safety. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported that more than 300 survivors of sexual violence sought care from its teams in Tawila following an earlier RSF assault on the Zamzam displacement camp. The UN last week confirmed that at least 25 women were gang‑raped when RSF forces entered a shelter near El‑Fasher University.

Amnesty International has warned that the RSF have used sexual violence across towns and villages in Sudan to humiliate communities, assert control and force populations to flee. The rights group has documented conflict‑related sexual violence by both the RSF and the regular army, particularly in Darfur and the capital Khartoum, and has criticised what it calls decades of impunity for such crimes.

Accounts from the route to safety

In Korma, a village northwest of El‑Fasher, Amira said she was detained for two days because she could not pay fighters for safe passage. She described people who could not pay being denied food and water and subjected to nighttime assaults.

“You'd be asleep and they'd come and rape you,” she said. “I saw with my own eyes people who couldn't afford to pay and the fighters took their daughters instead. They said, 'Since you can't pay, we'll take the girls.'”

Other survivors described systematic humiliation: searches of women and girls, physical beatings if nothing was found, and degrading treatment such as tearing sanitary pads. Witnesses also reported targeted killings; Sudan’s state minister for social welfare, Sulimah Ishaq, told AFP that 300 women were killed on the day El‑Fasher fell, some reportedly after sexual assault. The General Coordination for Displaced People and Refugees in Darfur documented 150 cases of sexual violence between the fall of El‑Fasher and November 1, with incidents both inside the city and along displacement routes.

Humanitarian crisis and urgent needs

More than 65,000 people have fled El‑Fasher since the city fell, including over 5,000 now sheltering in Tawila — a town that was already hosting more than 650,000 displaced people, according to the UN. In Tawila, families live in makeshift tents across desert plains, struggling to find food, water and shelter.

Humanitarian agencies and local groups warn of an urgent need for food, clean water, medical care, shelter and psychological support for survivors, many of whom report severe trauma and insecurity. Aid workers and rights groups are calling for independent investigations, protection for civilians and accountability for alleged atrocities.

Sources: survivor testimonies organised by Avaaz, MSF, Amnesty International, UN human rights office, Sudanese officials and reporting by AFP.