Abubakr Ahmed was ready to die on the soil he had fought so hard to defend from Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

For 550 days, he fought as a member of the “popular resistance”, a neighbourhood group formed to help the army and aligned armed groups protect el-Fasher from the RSF, their rival in the two-and-a-half-year civil war.

The besieged city was the last army stronghold in the sprawling region of Darfur, until it fell on October 26.

According to Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the army surrendered and negotiated the safe exit of its troops in the hope of stopping a bloodbath.

But their withdrawal left 250,000 people – starving and beleaguered civilians – to face the RSF alone.

Ahmed remembers “shooting” his way out of the city with a ha

See Full Page