The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been accused of committing a new wave of killings, abductions, and ethnically motivated attacks against civilians attempting to flee El Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur.

The RSF on Sunday escalated its attacks on the city and the adjacent Abu Shouk camp, which shelters 190,000 displaced persons. A spokesperson for the camp told Sudan Tribune that RSF fighters are forcibly displacing thousands of residents.

“The RSF forcibly displaced residents from blocks 17 to 28 after occupying their homes,” the spokesperson said. He added that while some were forced back into El Fasher, others fled towards areas controlled by the Sudan Liberation Movement under Abdel Wahid Nur.

The number of civilians abducted by the RSF has now exceeded 20, including women, children, and the elderly, the spokesperson stated, expressing “grave fears they could be killed under the pretext of supporting the army.”

The attacks are part of a renewed push by the RSF to seize control of the city, which it has besieged since April 2024, blocking humanitarian aid and triggering a severe hunger crisis.

Killings of fleeing civilians

In a separate development, the Sudan Doctors Network issued a statement accusing the RSF of brutally killing 13 people, including five children, as they tried to escape the violence.

The doctors’ group said the victims were killed “on an ethnic basis” in the town of Golo, on the road linking El Fasher to Tawila. The dead included four women and four elderly individuals.

“This heinous crime represents a new chapter in the series of ethnic cleansing and genocide committed by the RSF against unarmed citizens in Darfur, in blatant violation of all international and humanitarian laws,” the network’s statement read.

The group asserted that the systematic targeting of civilians proves the RSF is pursuing an “organized policy of displacing citizens from their land on an ethnic basis, which constitutes a full-fledged war crime.”

The network held the RSF fully responsible and urged the UN Security Council to take “immediate action to stop the crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing” by imposing sanctions on its leadership.

Civilians trying to leave El Fasher have consistently faced abuses from RSF fighters controlling the exit routes. Last week, an RSF officer reportedly killed a civilian, sparking widespread outrage and calls for an investigation.