Alarming testimonies emerge from North Darfur of alleged RSF lawlessness

Displaced people fleeing the Tawila locality in North Darfur have alleged that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and RSF-backed militants killed 15 civilians, raped at least three individuals, wounded dozens, razed the market, and displaced hundreds from camps in the region on June 18 and 19.

An eyewitness from the Um El Gura School for Girls shelter in North Darfur’s capital of El Fasher told Radio Dabanga on Tuesday that “gunmen on vehicles, motorcycles, and on camel-back” stormed Tawila last month.

Reports from those who fled Tawila claim that a child died on the arduous three-day walk towards El Fasher. They state the dangerous trek also resulted in at least 11 miscarriages due to the fatigue and stress of fleeing.

According to those who left Tawila, they had their possessions stolen repeatedly on their way to the capital. They state that they arrived in El Fasher without “their cash and mobile phones”.

Among the displaced at the Um El Gura School shelter, are a number of children aged between 11 to 13 years-old, who arrived unaccompanied and do not know their parent’s whereabouts.

Last month, a statement from the Sudanese Armed Forces asserted that the RSF alongside “elements of the RSF” attacked Tawila on June 18 and 19. However, the RSF’s political advisor Youssef Ezzat denied these claims in an interview with Radio Dabanga, stating that the RSF only attacked the army.

Diseases

Displaced people residing in the Um El Gura School shelter in El Fasher are suffering from especially high rates of malaria, fever, and infections, according to the shelter’s rapporteur Ibrahim Yagoub.

Yagoub stressed the urgent need for food, clean drinking water, and medicine to be delivered in order to stem the climbing rates of infection in the shelter.

The head of the shelter, Abdelrahman Ismail, said that they are currently housing 268 individuals (68 families) who had arrived on June 26 as a result of the events in Tawila. He stated that of the 268 that arrived, “45 children are children and 11 of whom are under the age of two”.

Abdelrahman reported that no interventions or official visits from any government agency to the shelter have taken place. He added that medicines and foodstuffs are being provided through donations from people living in the neighbourhood.