Hundreds may have been executed in capture of Sudanese city, UN rights office says

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GENEVA (Reuters) -Hundreds of Sudanese civilians and unarmed fighters may have been killed during the Sudanese paramilitary forces’ capture of the long-besieged city of Al-Fashir, the U.N. human rights office said on Friday.

The city, the Sudanese army’s last significant holdout in the western region of Darfur, fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Sunday, ending an 18-month siege.

“We estimate the death toll of civilians and those placed hors de combat during the RSF attack on the city and its exit routes, as well as in the days after the takeover, could amount to hundreds,” U.N. human rights office spokesperson Seif Magango told a Geneva press briefing on Friday, describing testimonies of summary executions and mass killings. 

The RSF has dismissed past accusations of abuses, and have made counter-accusations against the Sudanese army.

Tens of thousands of people have fled the city amid the upheaval and some of the testimonies of the Al-Fashir atrocities are from survivors who had to walk for three or four days to the town of Tawila, he said. 

Magango said the office had received testimonies from aid workers that at least 25 women were gang-raped when RSF fighters entered a shelter for displaced people near the university. 

“Witnesses confirm RSF personnel selected women and girls and raped them at gunpoint, forcing the remaining displaced persons – around 100 families – to leave the location amid shooting and intimidation of older residents,” he told reporters.

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Philippa Fletcher)