Thousands have fled the capital of Sudan's North Darfur region, el-Fasher, since it fell to paramilitary forces, but many remain stranded along a road between the city and displacement camps in a nearby town, a senior humanitarian said Thursday.

Noah Taylor, the Norwegian Refugee Council Head of Operations in Sudan, said the group had registered around 10,000 people who had fled to nearby Tawila, a town some 60 kilometers (35 miles) west of el-Fasher.

"Numbers have actually been decreasing in recent days rather than increasing and we suspect this is largely because there are pockets of people that are still trapped between here and el-Fasher who aren't able to move," he said.

Taylor added that stories from people arriving are "horrific" with many severely injured and beaten.

Last month, the country's Rapid Support Forces rampaged through el-Fasher, following more than 500 days of siege.

The paramilitary group had gone house to house, killing civilians and committing sexual assaults, according to relief agencies and witnesses.

The war between the RSF and the military began in 2023, when tensions erupted between the two former allies that were meant to oversee a democratic transition after a 2019 uprising.

The fighting has killed at least 40,000 people, according to the World Health Organization, and displaced 12 million.

Aid groups say the true death toll could be many times higher.