Amnesty International researchers interviewed survivors who described witnessing groups of men shot or beaten, and taken hostages for ransom. Female survivors described how they were subjected to sexual violence by RSF fighters, as were some of their daughters. Many interviewees described seeing hundreds of dead bodies left lying in El Fasher’s streets and on the main roads out of the city.

Amnesty International is also calling on the international and regional actors – including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the UN Security Council, the EU and its member states, the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the United Kingdom, United States, Russia, China – to put urgent diplomatic pressure on the RSF leadership to end their attacks on civilians including sexual violence against women and girls.

On 26 October, the day El Fasher fell, an estimated 260,000 civilians were still trapped in the city. ‘Ahmed’, 21, attempted to escape with his wife, two young children and his older brother by following a group of Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) soldiers who had abandoned their posts.

After his wife was killed by shrapnel from a nearby explosion and he became separated from his children, Ahmed was forced to continue moving north with his brother. Along the way they picked up two girls, aged three and four, whose parents had apparently been killed. When the group reached Golo, on the outskirts of the city, together with three other men and an older woman, they were ambushed by RSF fighters.

Ahmed said: “They asked us, ‘Are you soldiers, or are you civilians?’, and we told them we are civilians. They said, ‘In El Fasher, there are no civilians, everybody is a soldier’.” The RSF fighters then ordered his brother and the other three men to lie down. He said: “When they lied down, they executed them.”

The fighters let Ahmed, the two young girls and the older woman go, for reasons that remain unclear to them. Three days later, Ahmed reached Tawila, approximately 60km away, with the two girls. However, the older woman died on the journey, likely from dehydration.

‘Daoud’, 19, fled El Fasher with seven neighbourhood friends. He said they all were killed after RSF fighters captured them at the berm that surrounded the city: “They shot at us from all directions… I watched my friends die in front of me.”

‘Ibtisam’ left the Abu Shouk neighbourhood of El Fasher with her five children on the morning of 27 October. Along with a group of neighbours, they headed west towards Golo, where they were stopped by three RSF fighters.

Ibtisam said: “One of them forced me to go with them, cut my Jalabiya [a traditional robe], and raped me. When they left, my 14-year-old daughter came to me. I found that her clothes had blood and were cut into pieces. Her hair at the back of her head was full of dust.”

Ibtisam told Amnesty International that her daughter remained silent for the next few hours until she saw her mother crying: “She came to me and said, ‘Mum, they raped me too, but do not tell anyone.’ After the rape, my daughter really became sick… When we reached Tawila, her health deteriorated, and she died at the clinic.”

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said: “The world must not look away as more details emerge about the RSF’s brutal attack on El Fasher. The survivors we interviewed told of the unimaginable horrors they faced as they escaped the city.

“In the coming weeks, more evidence will emerge of the violence committed by RSF fighters in El Fasher. This persistent, widespread violence against civilians constitutes war crimes and may also constitute other crimes under international law. All those responsible must be held accountable for their actions.”