Thousands of refugees are fleeing El Fasher, Sudan, as violence escalates in the region. Hawa, a woman who arrived at a refugee camp in Tawila on October 20, shared her harrowing experience of being separated from her 16-year-old son during their escape. "We walked for days on rough terrain, our feet scorched," she recounted. "When they carried out executions, that was the first time I saw someone slaughtered in front of me. It was traumatizing."

Hawa is among many who have fled El Fasher since the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a Sudanese paramilitary group, took control of the city last month. El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, had been under siege for over 18 months before the RSF's takeover. Reports of atrocities have surfaced, compounded by a communications blackout that has made it difficult to gather information from the area.

Before fleeing, Hawa described how women and children were held separately and subjected to abuse. "They took young girls from us as a form of currency," she said. The Tawila camp, which has taken in many refugees, currently houses around 500,000 displaced individuals, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). However, only about 6,000 people have arrived in Tawila since the RSF's entry into El Fasher, leaving many unaccounted for.

Shashwat Saraf, the NRC's country director for Sudan, noted the difficulty in assessing the scale of violence. "The violence is a horror show," he said. "It's very bad. It's very difficult to even describe what we hear in our own words." He emphasized that every testimony from those who have fled includes accounts of violence, killings, kidnappings, and various forms of abuse, particularly against women.

Ala, an eight-month pregnant woman and mother of two, fled due to repeated displacements and food shortages. "We lived under constant bombardment and hunger," she said. "We even ate leather to survive." Mohammed, a 65-year-old man from El Fasher, described the perilous journey through numerous checkpoints, where he witnessed the execution of 17 people from his group.

Verified videos from El Fasher show the RSF's tactics, including burning homes and vehicles and executing civilians attempting to escape. Satellite imagery corroborates these reports, revealing the extent of destruction and violence. Experts from the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab noted that the scale of violence is so severe that blood and bodies are visible from space.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has declared famine in El Fasher and surrounding areas. At a field hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, patients, including women and children, are suffering from severe malnutrition. Dr. Livia Tampellini, MSF's deputy head of emergencies, reported that between October 26 and 29, the hospital treated 396 injured individuals and over 700 new arrivals from El Fasher.

The ongoing conflict in Sudan has roots in a military coup that dissolved the power-sharing transitional government in 2023. The RSF has been engaged in a civil war with the Sudanese military, with both sides accused of committing war crimes. The U.S. Department of State has stated that members of the RSF and allied militias have committed genocide in Sudan.

The situation in El Fasher represents a grim chapter in Sudan's humanitarian crisis, described as the largest ever recorded by the International Rescue Committee. Recently, a U.S.-led proposal for a peace plan involving Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States has emerged. The RSF announced an agreement to a humanitarian truce, although a State Department spokesperson did not confirm its formal implementation.

Despite these developments, violence continues unabated. Saraf urged the international community not to forget about Sudan, stating, "I think this crisis is both forgotten and is also being ignored. We need to make sure that we just don't talk about numbers. We're talking about millions of people. Every single number has a face, has a family, and has a life, and I think we need to respect it."