Sudan’s al-Fashir survivors recount torture at hands of RSF fighters

Mohamed was one of thousands who fled al-Fashir for the Tawila camp for displaced people in Sudan when the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured the city in late October.

Like many others, he didn’t make it.

Showing his scars Mohammed, who’s identity has been concealed for his safety, says he was tortured by the group for a month and forced to do hard labour.

Once they determined he was a civilian, he says they demanded a ransom for his release.

**“**On the second day, they said we’ll give you the phone to call your families. I tried to call my brother, but he didn’t pick up,” he says.

“The second day he picked up, and they demanded ransom from him. The wanted 11 million Sudanese pounds. They tried to negotiate, but in the end they paid it.”

That is nearly $3,500.

While his story can’t be independently verified, the United Nations reported massive violations of human rights during the RSF’s takeover of the city.

This includes widespread sexual violence against women and girls which has been documented by several organisations.

Aid agency Doctors Without Borders says it recorded over one thousand cases of sexual violence in Tawila last year alone.

Wissal Ismail is a protection officer with a local NGO, Hope Sudan, which is supporting survivors.

She says she’s heard stories of rape committed by both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces. She also heard of widespread extortion:

In one incident, she says seven women and ten men at a school in the Qarni area had their hands behind their backs.

“They were beaten and tortured. They were asked to pay a large sum of money for ransom. All the women in the school were sexually assaulted by the security forces,” she says.

The small support centre her organisation runs offers counselling and a space for the women to gather and cook. She wishes she could provide them with more psychosocial and medical support.

Many women are too ashamed to report their abuse, but some like this young mother of two have spoken out anonymously.

She remembers how she and a group of women had left the house to buy food for their families. On their way back, they were confronted by the RSF and then beaten and raped.

“They forced us and threatened us with their weapons. They told us, if you don`t open your body to us, we will kill you. They did all of this against our will,” she says.

Eventually, they released her. When she had the chance, she fled the city with her children but had to leave her husband behind.

The RSF’s capture of al-Fashir involved some of the worst fighting of Sudan’s ongoing civil war.

The UN estimates that more than a hundred thousand people fled the city to places like Tawila.

As survivors struggle to rebuild their lives, Ismail says they desperately need support and she hopes the perpetrators will be brought to justice.