The Rapid Reaction Force (RRF) killed 300 women in the first days after the capture of the city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province in Sudan.
Selima Ishak, Sudan’s Minister of State for Social Protection, told Anadolu about this.
Ishak spoke in detail about human rights violations committed by the RRF, an armed group fighting against the Sudanese army and accused of massacres civilians, especially in the Darfur region.
As soon as the RRF entered El Fasher, 300 women were killed in the first 48 hours, the minister said. “Women in the city are subjected to sexual violence, physical abuse and torture. The population of El Fasher continues to live in an atmosphere of constant terror: people are tortured, humiliated, raped and insulted. What is happening here is nothing more than systematic ethnic cleansing, to which the world community turns a blind eye,” the minister said.
According to Ishak, even refugees who tried to escape from El Fasher and to take refuge in neighboring Tawil, are in mortal danger. “The roads between these communities have become real routes of death,” she said.
Conflict in Sudan and RRF abuses
Since April 15, 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in violent clashes between the army and the RRF. As a result of the conflict, more than 14 million people have been forced to flee their homes, becoming internally displaced or refugees outside the country.
The Sudanese army has regained control of the capital Khartoum and the central regions, while the RRF has concentrated its forces in the west of the country.
The RRF controls the administrative centers of four of the five provinces of the Darfur region and has held El Fasher under siege since May 2024. capital of North Darfur province, regularly attacking the city.
Previously, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk strongly condemned the ongoing killing and injury of civilians in El Fasher. According to the UN Human Rights Office, from October 5 to 8 alone, the RSF killed at least 53 civilians and injured more than 60 people.