In January 2024, Ahmed Abubakr Imam picked up a rifle to defend his group.
The paramilitary Fast Assist Forces (RSF) had simply captured 4 of the 5 provinces in Sudan’s sprawling western area of Darfur – South, East, Central and West – in a lightning assault because it superior in its battle towards the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its allies.
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It was now threatening to seize North Darfur, leaving hundreds of individuals like Imam terrified.
He knew that the largely nomadic – sometimes called “Arab” – RSF was infamous for abducting and raping girls and women and extrajudicially killing males and boys from predominantly sedentary “non-Arab” communities.
Like hundreds of non-Arabs in North Darfur, Imam joined the Widespread Resistance, that are neighbourhood defence teams backed by the SAF.
“The RSF militia clearly doesn’t distinguish between civilians and fighters,” the 27-year-old advised Al Jazeera.
Nowhere to go
Since an all-out civil battle erupted between the SAF and the RSF in April 2023, the latter has practically consolidated management over its stronghold in Darfur.
Each side have dedicated grave abuses, but the RSF is implicated in extra atrocities corresponding to genocide and systematic sexual violence, based on United Nations specialists and native and worldwide displays.
In April 2024, the RSF imposed a crippling siege on North Darfur’s capital el-Fasher, the place some 260,000 individuals are languishing and withering away from starvation.
Many ladies, kids, and a few males have been in a position to escape to close by Tawila, a city about 45 miles (70 kilometres) east, which is coping with its personal catastrophic cholera epidemic.
On the highway, these escaping el-Fasher are pressured to pay the equal of $300 every to RSF fighters and hand over their jewelry and belongings.
Nonetheless, males have regularly been detained and killed after being suspected by the RSF of being fighters, whereas girls and youngsters have been kidnapped, residents say.
These dangers have compelled a whole bunch of hundreds of individuals to remain in el-Fasher till the RSF is repelled or town falls.
“If the militia RSF didn’t goal civilians, then all of the civilians would have left el-Fasher by now,” Imam advised Al Jazeera.
Some, like Imam, are on the entrance strains, whereas others try to collect sufficient meals and provides to feed their ravenous communities or doc atrocities for the skin world.
Imam is the oldest of a number of brothers and sisters, the youngest of whom is simply three years outdated. He fears they might all be raped or killed if the RSF reaches them.
“I’m the oldest sibling … so I’ve a accountability to guard my household,” he mentioned.
Al Jazeera despatched written inquiries to the RSF’s press workplace, asking for the group to touch upon accusations that it targets civilians attempting to flee el-Fasher. The RSF didn’t reply earlier than publication.
‘Kill field’
In accordance with the Yale Humanitarian Analysis Lab, which is utilizing satellite tv for pc imagery to watch developments in North Darfur, the RSF is now making it practically inconceivable for individuals to flee town, even when they need to.
On August 28, the analysis lab revealed that the RSF has constructed roughly 31 kilometres (19 miles) of desert berms (limitations) round el-Fasher.
About 22 kilometres (13.6 miles) type a semicircle from the west to the north of town and an extra 9 kilometres (9 miles) impede any try to flee east.
“With these berms, RSF is making a literal kill field round El-Fasher,” the Yale report mentioned.
Mohamed Zakaria, a journalist in el-Fasher, mentioned the desert berms stand about 3 metres excessive.
He mentioned that no one is ready to climb the partitions until they’re pulled up, and that every one different roads out of el-Fasher have been blocked.
On high of that, he pressured that civilians in Abu Shouk displacement camp, northwest of el-Fasher, are deciding whether or not to remain and face a possible RSF assault, or escape, realizing the risks.
Native displays advised Al Jazeera that about 80 % of the camp’s roughly 190,000 individuals have already fled, both to el-Fasher and surrounding villages or to Tawila.
Abu Shouk was constructed to accommodate individuals fleeing the state-backed “Arab” Janjaweed militias, which terrorised non-Arab communities through the first Darfur battle in 2003. Many of those militias have been later repackaged into the RSF.
On August 22, the United Nations accused the RSF of summarily executing 16 males from Abu Shouk, as a part of a wider assault that killed dozens of individuals.
The continued assault on Abu Shouk follows the RSF’s assault on Zamzam camp, south of el-Fasher, in April, which uprooted half one million individuals and killed greater than a thousand.
“Proper now, there’s [artillery] shelling concentrating on Abu Shouk from each course …they’re additionally finishing up incursions and kidnapping campaigns,” Zakaria warned.
“The identical situation that occurred in Zamzam is going on in Abu Shouk,” he advised Al Jazeera.
Hunger
The RSF’s chokehold siege on el-Fasher can be exacerbating the man-made hunger within the metropolis, based on UN companies and native aid volunteers.
In accordance with the UN, meals shares are virtually completely depleted and meals convoys have just lately been attacked by drones.
Households sometimes survive on tree leaves or an animal feed recognized domestically as “ambaz”, produced by urgent the residue of peanut and sunflower seeds right into a slurry for consumption.
But even ambaz is starting to expire, warns Magdy Yousef, a resident of el-Fasher and a member of the Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs), grassroots initiatives offering service provisions to beleaguered civilians.
Yousef advised Al Jazeera that ERRs volunteers try to buy meals, run group kitchens and supply medication to assist a few of the most weak individuals within the metropolis. At finest, most individuals are surviving on a single meal a day.
“There are solely 5 group kitchens remaining in el-Fasher… every one gives a meal to simply 3,000 individuals,” Yousef mentioned.
“We now have reached the purpose of famine,” he added.
Because of the dire hunger in el-Fasher, Yousef mentioned some households – kids, girls and the aged – are risking their lives to succeed in Tawila every single day.
He accepted that it’s too harmful for males of combating age, corresponding to himself, to attempt to escape.
“The RSF is concentrating on all younger males leaving town, so most are staying put, regardless of the hunger and starvation [in el-Fasher],” Yousef mentioned.
“Possibly their households can attempt to depart, but it surely’s far too harmful for younger males.”