More than 60,000 Escape Sudan's City In the wake of Capture by RSF Militia, UN States

According to the United Nations refugee organization, over 60,000 people have left the Sudanese city of el-Fasher, which was captured by the paramilitary RSF during the weekend.

Accounts suggest summary killings and human rights violations as paramilitary forces entered the city after an year-and-a-half siege featuring famine and intense shelling.

The flow of those running from the violence towards the community of Tawila, approximately 80km (50 miles) to the west of el-Fasher, had grown in the last several days, per United Nations refugee agency representative.

Survivors were describing horrendous stories of atrocities, such as sexual violence, and the agency was having trouble to locate sufficient housing and food for them.

Every child was affected by undernourishment, she added.

Estimates suggest that more than 150,000 people are still trapped in el-Fasher, which had been the army's last stronghold in the western region of Darfur.

The Rapid Support Forces has rejected broad claims that the killings in el-Fasher are based on ethnic factors and follow a pattern of the Arab fighters focusing on non-Arab populations.

Nevertheless the paramilitary group has detained one of its fighters, Abu Lulu, who has been accused of extrajudicial killings.

The group shared video revealing the militiaman's arrest after identification that he was behind the killing of multiple civilians in the vicinity of el-Fasher.

Social media platform has verified that it has banned the channel linked to Lulu. Uncertainty exists whether he had controlled the account in his identity.

Sudan was plunged into a internal conflict in April 2023 when a vicious contest for control began between its army and the Rapid Support Forces.

The conflict has resulted in a starvation emergency and allegations of genocide in the Darfur area.

More than 150,000 people have lost their lives in the fighting across the country, and approximately 12 million have abandoned their residences in what the UN has termed the biggest global humanitarian emergency.

The capture of el-Fasher reinforces the geographic split in the country, with the Rapid Support Forces now in control of western Sudan and significant areas of adjacent Kordofan to the south, and the military controlling the main city, Khartoum, central and eastern areas along the coastal region.

The opposing sides had been allies - coming to power together in a takeover in 2021 - but fell out over an internationally backed proposal to transition to democratic governance.