Latest news with #Hafiza
Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Times
‘Escape or starve': life inside Sudan's city under siege
Orphaned and raising three sisters alone, the youngest just five, Hafiza has only ever known life in a Darfur displacement camp. Born after her parents fled the genocidal Janjaweed militia in the early 2000s, she is now trying to survive the militia's reincarnation — the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — as they bombard and deliberately starve the city around her. The 22-year-old was studying to be an English teacher when Sudan's civil war shut down her university in El Fasher, where she and her sisters are among hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped on a front line between the army and the RSF. Many are in displacement camps where monitors warn famine has already set in and malnutrition has led to at least 60 deaths in the past week. The girls' mother was killed in front of them last year when a busy market was shelled. 'I've seen ten or 15 people killed at a time from the bombardments,' Hafiza said in a call from the city's Abu Shouk displacement camp. Attacks have intensified in recent months after the RSF was ousted from Sudan's capital, Khartoum. Alongside the bombardments, a slower crisis is unfolding. 'People are also dying more slowly, from starvation,' she said. Between searching for food for her siblings, who are now severely underweight, Hafiza works at a charity clinic in the camp, cleaning wounds from the latest shelling and holding a phone torch while medics operate. Aid convoys are blocked, electricity and clean water are non-existent and hospitals have collapsed. International aid organisations have condemned the 'calculated use of starvation as a weapon of war.' • Doctors killed and girls abducted in Darfur massacre Since April 2023, Sudan's war has killed at least 150,000 people and displaced more than ten million in what the United Nations calls the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis. Both sides face allegations of war crimes. The United States has formally determined that the RSF and its allied Arab militias are committing genocide in Darfur, accusing them of ethnically targeted massacres and widespread sexual violence against the same black African ethnic groups — including Hafiza's Fur community in Darfur — that were killed in their hundreds of thousands during the genocide of the early 2000s. The conflict has split the country into rival zones of control and become a proxy battleground for regional and international players, including Russia and the United Arab Emirates. El Fasher is the army's last foothold in Darfur, and its fall would give the RSF control over a vast region bordering Libya, Chad, Central African Republic and South Sudan — and pave the way for what analysts say could be Sudan's de facto division. El Fasher's markets are now empty save for a few supplies smuggled in by private traders at prices far beyond the reach of most residents. A sack of millet can fetch 7.2m Sudanese pounds (£8,800) and a pound of salt sells for at least 2,400 Sudanese pounds (£2.95) Those trapped, like Hafiza, face the grim choice of staying in the hope that the siege is broken, or attempting to escape through RSF-controlled territory. Leaving carries the risk of being killed, enslaved or subjected to the sexual violence that has marked the conflict from the start. Mahasin, 41, lost contact with her husband in the chaos of the war, in which men and boys of fighting age have been forcibly conscripted or killed. Feeding herself and her four children in El Fasher was becoming impossible. Some days they survived on leaves and umbaz, an animal fodder made from peanut shells and other food waste. • Sudanese civilians 'targeted in reprisal killings' 'Death seemed certain, if not today then tomorrow, from an attack, hunger or disease. When I went out to find food I never knew if I would survive and return to my children,' she said. While they still had the strength, Mahasin decided they should attempt to reach Tawila, 60km west of El Fasher. The location has become a hub for 380,000 people escaping the city and the nearby Zamzam displacement camp which came under a days-long attack in April in which 1,500 civilians are thought to have been massacred. But Tawila offers less safety by the day, Mahasin said in a call from the town. Aid is scarce because humanitarian agencies are stretched by foreign funding cuts and the town's scant clean water and sanitation are fuelling the spread of cholera. On Tuesday, government sources reported that Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan's army chief and de facto leader, met President Trump's Africa adviser Massad Boulos in a secret meeting in Switzerland over a US peace proposal. Past efforts to mediate between Burhan and his deputy turned rival, the RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, have failed to yield a sustained ceasefire. The two generals, who are fighting for overall power, jointly ousted Sudan's long-time ruler Omar al-Bashir in 2019 and later staged a coup against a civilian-led unity government.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Sudan's siege city - BBC smuggles in phones to reveal hunger and fear
"She left no last words. She was dead when she was carried away," says Hafiza quietly, as she describes how her mother was killed in a city under siege in Darfur, during Sudan's civil war, which began exactly two years ago. The 21-year-old recorded how her family's life was turned upside down by her mother's death, on one of several phones the BBC World Service managed to get to people trapped in the crossfire in el-Fasher. Under constant bombardment, el-Fasher has been largely cut off from the outside world for a year, making it impossible for journalists to enter the city. For safety reasons, we are only using the first names of people who wanted to film their lives and share their stories on the BBC phones. Hafiza describes how she suddenly found herself responsible for her five-year-old brother and two teenage sisters. Their father had died before the start of the war, which has pitted the army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and caused the world's biggest humanitarian crisis. The two rivals had been allies - coming to power together in a coup - but fell out over an internationally backed plan to move towards civilian rule. Hafiza's home is the last major city controlled by the military in Sudan's western region of Darfur, and has been under siege by the RSF for the past 12 months. In August 2024, a shell hit the market where her mother had gone to sell household goods. "Grief is very difficult, I still can't bring myself to visit her workplace," says Hafiza in one of her first video messages after receiving her phone, shortly after her mother's death. "I spend my time crying alone at home." Both sides in the war have been accused of war crimes and deliberately targeting civilians - which they deny. The RSF has also previously denied accusations from the US and human rights groups that it has committed a genocide against non-Arab groups in other parts of Darfur after it seized control of those areas. The RSF controls passage in and out the city and sometimes allows civilians to leave, so Hafiza managed to send her siblings to stay with family in a neutral area. But she stayed to try to earn money to support them. In her messages, she describes her days distributing blankets and water to displaced people living in shelters, helping at a community kitchen and supporting a breast cancer awareness group in return for a little money to help her survive. Her nights are spent alone. "I remember the places where my mother and siblings used to sit, I feel broken," she adds. In almost every video 32-year-old Mostafa sent us, the sound of shelling and gunfire can be heard in the background. "We endure relentless artillery shelling, both day and night, by the RSF," he says. One day, after visiting family, he returned to find his house near the city centre had been hit by shells - the roof and walls were damaged - and looters had ransacked what was left. "Everything was turned upside down. Most houses in our neighbourhood have been looted," he says, blaming the RSF. While Mostafa was volunteering at a shelter for displaced people, the area came under intense attack. He kept his camera rolling as he hid, flinching at each explosion. "There is no safe place in el-Fasher," he says. "Even refugee camps are being bombed with artillery shells. "Death can strike anyone, anytime, without warning… by a bullet, shelling, hunger or thirst." In another message, he talks about the lack of clean water, describing how people drink from sources contaminated with sewage. Both Mostafa and 26-year-old Manahel, who also received a BBC phone, volunteered at community kitchens funded by donations from Sudanese people living elsewhere. The UN has warned of famine in the city, something that has already happened at the nearby Zamzam camp, which is home to more than 500,000 displaced people. Many people cannot get to the market "and if they go, they find high prices", explains Manahel. "Every family is equal now - there is no rich or poor. People can't afford the basic necessities like food." After cooking meals such as rice and stew, they deliver the food to people in shelters. For many, it is the only meal they will have for the day. When the war started, Manahel had just finished university, where she studied Sharia and law. As the fighting reached el-Fasher, she moved with her mother and six siblings to a safer area, further away from the front line. "You lose your home, everything you own and find yourself in a new place with nothing," she says. But her father refused to leave their house. Some neighbours had entrusted him with their belongings, and he decided to stay to protect them - a decision that cost him his life. She says he was killed by RSF artillery in September 2024. Since the siege began a year ago, almost 2,000 people have been killed or injured in el-Fasher, according to the UN. After sunset, people rarely leave their homes. The lack of electricity can make night-time frightening for many of el-Fasher's one million residents. People with solar power or batteries are scared to turn lights on because they "could be detected by drones", explains Manahel. There were times we could not reach her or the others for several days because they had no internet access. But above all these worries, there is one particular fear that both Manahel and Hafiza share if the city falls to the RSF. "As a girl, I might get raped," Hafiza says in one of her messages. She, Manahel and Mostafa are all from non-Arabic communities and their fear stems from what happened in other cities that the RSF has taken, most notably el-Geneina, 250 miles (400km) west of el-Fasher. In 2023 it witnessed horrific massacres, along ethnic lines, which the US and others say amounted to genocide. RSF fighters and allied Arab militia allegedly targeted people from non-Arab ethnic groups, such as the Massalit - which the RSF has previously denied. A Massalit woman I met in a refugee camp over the border in Chad described how she was gang-raped by RSF fighters and was unable to walk for nearly two weeks, while the UN has said girls as young as 14 were raped. One man told me how he witnessed a massacre by RSF forces - he escaped after he was injured and left for dead. The UN estimates that between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed in el-Geneina alone in 2023. And now more than a quarter of a million people from the city - half its former population - are among those living in refugee camps in Chad. We put these accusations to the RSF but it did not respond. However, in the past it has denied any involvement in ethnic cleansing in Darfur, saying the perpetrators had worn RSF clothing to shift the blame to them. Few reporters have had access to el-Geneina since then, but after months of negotiation with the city's civil authorities, a BBC team was allowed to visit in December 2024. We were assigned minders from the governor's office and were only allowed to see what they wanted to show us. It was immediately clear that the RSF was in control. I saw their fighters patrolling the streets in armed vehicles and had a brief conversation with some of them, when they showed me their anti-vehicle rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher. It did not take long to realise how differently they viewed the conflict. Their commander insisted there were no civilians like Hafiza, Mostafa and Manahel living in el-Fasher. "The person who stays in a war zone is participating in the war, there are no civilians, they are all from the army," he said. He claimed el-Geneina was now peaceful and that most of its residents - "around 90%" - had come back. "Homes that were previously empty are now occupied again." But hundreds of thousands of the city's residents are still living as refugees in Chad, and I saw many deserted and destroyed neighbourhoods as we drove around. With the minders watching us, it was hard to get a true picture of life in el-Geneina. They took us to a bustling vegetable market, where I asked people about their lives. Each time I asked someone a question, I noticed them glance at the minder over my shoulder before answering that everything was "fine", apart from a few comments about high prices. However, my minder would often whisper in my ear afterwards, saying people were exaggerating about the prices. We ended our trip with an interview with Tijani Karshoum, the governor of West Darfur whose predecessor was killed in May 2023 after accusing the RSF of committing genocide. It was his first interview since 2023, and he maintained he was a neutral civilian during the el-Geneina unrest and did not side with anyone. "We have turned a new page with the slogan of peace, coexistence, moving beyond the bitterness of the past," he said, adding that the UN's casualty figures were "exaggerated". Also in the room was a man who we understood to be a representative of the RSF. Karshoum's answers to nearly all my questions were almost identical, whether I was asking about accusations of ethnic cleansing or about what happened to the former governor, Khamis Abakar. Nearly two weeks after I spoke to Karshoum, the European Union imposed sanctions on him, saying he "holds responsibility in the fatal attack" on his predecessor and that he had "been involved in planning, directing or committing… serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, including killings, rape and other serious forms of sexual and gender-based violence, and abduction". I followed up with him to get his response to these accusations, and he said: "Since I am a suspect in this matter, I believe any statement from me would lack credibility." But he stated that he "was never part of the tribal conflict and remained at home during the clashes" and added that he was not involved in any violations of humanitarian law. "Accusations of killings, abductions, or rape must be addressed through an independent investigation" with which he would co-operate, Karshoum said. "From the start of the conflict in Khartoum, we pushed for peace and proposed well-known initiatives to prevent violence in our socially fragile state," he added. Given the stark contrast between the narrative promoted by those in control of el-Geneina and the countless stories I heard from refugees across the border, it is hard to imagine people ever returning home. The same goes for 12 million other Sudanese people who have fled their homes and are either refugees abroad or living in camps inside Sudan. In the end, Hafiza, Mostafa and Manahel found life in el-Fasher unbearable and in November 2024 all three left the city to stay in nearby towns. With the military regaining control of the capital, Khartoum, in March, Darfur remains the last major region where the paramilitaries are still largely in control - and that has turned el-Fasher into an even more intense battlefield. "El-Fasher has become scary," Manahel said as she packed her belongings. "We are leaving without knowing our fate. Will we ever return to el-Fasher? When will this war end? We don't know what will happen." What is going on in Sudan? A simple guide BBC finds fear, loss and hope in Sudan's ruined capital after army victory Famine looms in Sudan as civil war survivors tell of killings and rapes 'Death is everywhere': Sudan camp residents shelter from attacks
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Sudan's siege city - BBC smuggles in phones to reveal hunger and fear
"She left no last words. She was dead when she was carried away," says Hafiza quietly, as she describes how her mother was killed in a city under siege in Darfur, during Sudan's civil war, which began exactly two years ago. The 21-year-old recorded how her family's life was turned upside down by her mother's death, on one of several phones the BBC World Service managed to get to people trapped in the crossfire in el-Fasher. Under constant bombardment, el-Fasher has been largely cut off from the outside world for a year, making it impossible for journalists to enter the city. For safety reasons, we are only using the first names of people who wanted to film their lives and share their stories on the BBC phones. Hafiza describes how she suddenly found herself responsible for her five-year-old brother and two teenage sisters. Their father had died before the start of the war, which has pitted the army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and caused the world's biggest humanitarian crisis. The two rivals had been allies - coming to power together in a coup - but fell out over an internationally backed plan to move towards civilian rule. Hafiza's home is the last major city controlled by the military in Sudan's western region of Darfur, and has been under siege by the RSF for the past 12 months. In August 2024, a shell hit the market where her mother had gone to sell household goods. "Grief is very difficult, I still can't bring myself to visit her workplace," says Hafiza in one of her first video messages after receiving her phone, shortly after her mother's death. "I spend my time crying alone at home." Both sides in the war have been accused of war crimes and deliberately targeting civilians - which they deny. The RSF has also previously denied accusations from the US and human rights groups that it has committed a genocide against non-Arab groups in other parts of Darfur after it seized control of those areas. The RSF controls passage in and out the city and sometimes allows civilians to leave, so Hafiza managed to send her siblings to stay with family in a neutral area. But she stayed to try to earn money to support them. In her messages, she describes her days distributing blankets and water to displaced people living in shelters, helping at a community kitchen and supporting a breast cancer awareness group in return for a little money to help her survive. Her nights are spent alone. "I remember the places where my mother and siblings used to sit, I feel broken," she adds. In almost every video 32-year-old Mostafa sent us, the sound of shelling and gunfire can be heard in the background. "We endure relentless artillery shelling, both day and night, by the RSF," he says. One day, after visiting family, he returned to find his house near the city centre had been hit by shells - the roof and walls were damaged - and looters had ransacked what was left. "Everything was turned upside down. Most houses in our neighbourhood have been looted," he says, blaming the RSF. While Mostafa was volunteering at a shelter for displaced people, the area came under intense attack. He kept his camera rolling as he hid, flinching at each explosion. "There is no safe place in el-Fasher," he says. "Even refugee camps are being bombed with artillery shells. "Death can strike anyone, anytime, without warning… by a bullet, shelling, hunger or thirst." In another message, he talks about the lack of clean water, describing how people drink from sources contaminated with sewage. Both Mostafa and 26-year-old Manahel, who also received a BBC phone, volunteered at community kitchens funded by donations from Sudanese people living elsewhere. The UN has warned of famine in the city, something that has already happened at the nearby Zamzam camp, which is home to more than 500,000 displaced people. Many people cannot get to the market "and if they go, they find high prices", explains Manahel. "Every family is equal now - there is no rich or poor. People can't afford the basic necessities like food." After cooking meals such as rice and stew, they deliver the food to people in shelters. For many, it is the only meal they will have for the day. When the war started, Manahel had just finished university, where she studied Sharia and law. As the fighting reached el-Fasher, she moved with her mother and six siblings to a safer area, further away from the front line. "You lose your home, everything you own and find yourself in a new place with nothing," she says. But her father refused to leave their house. Some neighbours had entrusted him with their belongings, and he decided to stay to protect them - a decision that cost him his life. She says he was killed by RSF artillery in September 2024. Since the siege began a year ago, almost 2,000 people have been killed or injured in el-Fasher, according to the UN. After sunset, people rarely leave their homes. The lack of electricity can make night-time frightening for many of el-Fasher's one million residents. People with solar power or batteries are scared to turn lights on because they "could be detected by drones", explains Manahel. There were times we could not reach her or the others for several days because they had no internet access. But above all these worries, there is one particular fear that both Manahel and Hafiza share if the city falls to the RSF. "As a girl, I might get raped," Hafiza says in one of her messages. She, Manahel and Mostafa are all from non-Arabic communities and their fear stems from what happened in other cities that the RSF has taken, most notably el-Geneina, 250 miles (400km) west of el-Fasher. In 2023 it witnessed horrific massacres, along ethnic lines, which the US and others say amounted to genocide. RSF fighters and allied Arab militia allegedly targeted people from non-Arab ethnic groups, such as the Massalit - which the RSF has previously denied. A Massalit woman I met in a refugee camp over the border in Chad described how she was gang-raped by RSF fighters and was unable to walk for nearly two weeks, while the UN has said girls as young as 14 were raped. One man told me how he witnessed a massacre by RSF forces - he escaped after he was injured and left for dead. The UN estimates that between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed in el-Geneina alone in 2023. And now more than a quarter of a million people from the city - half its former population - are among those living in refugee camps in Chad. We put these accusations to the RSF but it did not respond. However, in the past it has denied any involvement in ethnic cleansing in Darfur, saying the perpetrators had worn RSF clothing to shift the blame to them. Few reporters have had access to el-Geneina since then, but after months of negotiation with the city's civil authorities, a BBC team was allowed to visit in December 2024. We were assigned minders from the governor's office and were only allowed to see what they wanted to show us. It was immediately clear that the RSF was in control. I saw their fighters patrolling the streets in armed vehicles and had a brief conversation with some of them, when they showed me their anti-vehicle rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher. It did not take long to realise how differently they viewed the conflict. Their commander insisted there were no civilians like Hafiza, Mostafa and Manahel living in el-Fasher. "The person who stays in a war zone is participating in the war, there are no civilians, they are all from the army," he said. He claimed el-Geneina was now peaceful and that most of its residents - "around 90%" - had come back. "Homes that were previously empty are now occupied again." But hundreds of thousands of the city's residents are still living as refugees in Chad, and I saw many deserted and destroyed neighbourhoods as we drove around. With the minders watching us, it was hard to get a true picture of life in el-Geneina. They took us to a bustling vegetable market, where I asked people about their lives. Each time I asked someone a question, I noticed them glance at the minder over my shoulder before answering that everything was "fine", apart from a few comments about high prices. However, my minder would often whisper in my ear afterwards, saying people were exaggerating about the prices. We ended our trip with an interview with Tijani Karshoum, the governor of West Darfur whose predecessor was killed in May 2023 after accusing the RSF of committing genocide. It was his first interview since 2023, and he maintained he was a neutral civilian during the el-Geneina unrest and did not side with anyone. "We have turned a new page with the slogan of peace, coexistence, moving beyond the bitterness of the past," he said, adding that the UN's casualty figures were "exaggerated". Also in the room was a man who we understood to be a representative of the RSF. Karshoum's answers to nearly all my questions were almost identical, whether I was asking about accusations of ethnic cleansing or about what happened to the former governor, Khamis Abakar. Nearly two weeks after I spoke to Karshoum, the European Union imposed sanctions on him, saying he "holds responsibility in the fatal attack" on his predecessor and that he had "been involved in planning, directing or committing… serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, including killings, rape and other serious forms of sexual and gender-based violence, and abduction". I followed up with him to get his response to these accusations, and he said: "Since I am a suspect in this matter, I believe any statement from me would lack credibility." But he stated that he "was never part of the tribal conflict and remained at home during the clashes" and added that he was not involved in any violations of humanitarian law. "Accusations of killings, abductions, or rape must be addressed through an independent investigation" with which he would co-operate, Karshoum said. "From the start of the conflict in Khartoum, we pushed for peace and proposed well-known initiatives to prevent violence in our socially fragile state," he added. Given the stark contrast between the narrative promoted by those in control of el-Geneina and the countless stories I heard from refugees across the border, it is hard to imagine people ever returning home. The same goes for 12 million other Sudanese people who have fled their homes and are either refugees abroad or living in camps inside Sudan. In the end, Hafiza, Mostafa and Manahel found life in el-Fasher unbearable and in November 2024 all three left the city to stay in nearby towns. With the military regaining control of the capital, Khartoum, in March, Darfur remains the last major region where the paramilitaries are still largely in control - and that has turned el-Fasher into an even more intense battlefield. "El-Fasher has become scary," Manahel said as she packed her belongings. "We are leaving without knowing our fate. Will we ever return to el-Fasher? When will this war end? We don't know what will happen." What is going on in Sudan? A simple guide BBC finds fear, loss and hope in Sudan's ruined capital after army victory Famine looms in Sudan as civil war survivors tell of killings and rapes 'Death is everywhere': Sudan camp residents shelter from attacks
BBC News
15-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Sudan conflict: BBC smuggles phones into el-Fasher to uncover hunger and fear
"She left no last words. She was dead when she was carried away," says Hafiza quietly, as she describes how her mother was killed in a city under siege in Darfur, during Sudan's civil war, which began exactly two years 21-year-old recorded how her family's life was turned upside down by her mother's death, on one of several phones the BBC World Service managed to get to people trapped in the crossfire in constant bombardment, el-Fasher has been largely cut off from the outside world for a year, making it impossible for journalists to enter the city. For safety reasons, we are only using the first names of people who wanted to film their lives and share their stories on the BBC describes how she suddenly found herself responsible for her five-year-old brother and two teenage father had died before the start of the war, which has pitted the army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and caused the world's biggest humanitarian crisis. The two rivals had been allies - coming to power together in a coup - but fell out over an internationally backed plan to move towards civilian home is the last major city controlled by the military in Sudan's western region of Darfur, and has been under siege by the RSF for the past 12 August 2024, a shell hit the market where her mother had gone to sell household goods."Grief is very difficult, I still can't bring myself to visit her workplace," says Hafiza in one of her first video messages after receiving her phone, shortly after her mother's death."I spend my time crying alone at home."Both sides in the war have been accused of war crimes and deliberately targeting civilians - which they deny. The RSF has also previously denied accusations from the US and human rights groups that it has committed a genocide against non-Arab groups in other parts of Darfur after it seized control of those RSF controls passage in and out the city and sometimes allows civilians to leave, so Hafiza managed to send her siblings to stay with family in a neutral she stayed to try to earn money to support her messages, she describes her days distributing blankets and water to displaced people living in shelters, helping at a community kitchen and supporting a breast cancer awareness group in return for a little money to help her nights are spent alone."I remember the places where my mother and siblings used to sit, I feel broken," she adds. In almost every video 32-year-old Mostafa sent us, the sound of shelling and gunfire can be heard in the background."We endure relentless artillery shelling, both day and night, by the RSF," he day, after visiting family, he returned to find his house near the city centre had been hit by shells - the roof and walls were damaged - and looters had ransacked what was left."Everything was turned upside down. Most houses in our neighbourhood have been looted," he says, blaming the Mostafa was volunteering at a shelter for displaced people, the area came under intense attack. He kept his camera rolling as he hid, flinching at each explosion."There is no safe place in el-Fasher," he says. "Even refugee camps are being bombed with artillery shells."Death can strike anyone, anytime, without warning… by a bullet, shelling, hunger or thirst." In another message, he talks about the lack of clean water, describing how people drink from sources contaminated with Mostafa and 26-year-old Manahel, who also received a BBC phone, volunteered at community kitchens funded by donations from Sudanese people living UN has warned of famine in the city, something that has already happened at the nearby Zamzam camp, which is home to more than 500,000 displaced people cannot get to the market "and if they go, they find high prices", explains Manahel."Every family is equal now - there is no rich or poor. People can't afford the basic necessities like food." After cooking meals such as rice and stew, they deliver the food to people in shelters. For many, it is the only meal they will have for the the war started, Manahel had just finished university, where she studied Sharia and the fighting reached el-Fasher, she moved with her mother and six siblings to a safer area, further away from the front line."You lose your home, everything you own and find yourself in a new place with nothing," she her father refused to leave their house. Some neighbours had entrusted him with their belongings, and he decided to stay to protect them - a decision that cost him his says he was killed by RSF artillery in September 2024. Since the siege began a year ago, almost 2,000 people have been killed or injured in el-Fasher, according to the sunset, people rarely leave their homes. The lack of electricity can make night-time frightening for many of el-Fasher's one million with solar power or batteries are scared to turn lights on because they "could be detected by drones", explains were times we could not reach her or the others for several days because they had no internet above all these worries, there is one particular fear that both Manahel and Hafiza share if the city falls to the RSF."As a girl, I might get raped," Hafiza says in one of her Manahel and Mostafa are all from non-Arabic communities and their fear stems from what happened in other cities that the RSF has taken, most notably el-Geneina, 250 miles (400km) west of el-Fasher. In 2023 it witnessed horrific massacres, along ethnic lines, which the US and others say amounted to genocide. RSF fighters and allied Arab militia allegedly targeted people from non-Arab ethnic groups, such as the Massalit - which the RSF has previously denied.A Massalit woman I met in a refugee camp over the border in Chad described how she was gang-raped by RSF fighters and was unable to walk for nearly two weeks, while the UN has said girls as young as 14 were man told me how he witnessed a massacre by RSF forces - he escaped after he was injured and left for UN estimates that between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed in el-Geneina alone in 2023. And now more than a quarter of a million people from the city - half its former population - are among those living in refugee camps in put these accusations to the RSF but it did not respond. However, in the past it has denied any involvement in ethnic cleansing in Darfur, saying the perpetrators had worn RSF clothing to shift the blame to reporters have had access to el-Geneina since then, but after months of negotiation with the city's civil authorities, a BBC team was allowed to visit in December 2024. We were assigned minders from the governor's office and were only allowed to see what they wanted to show was immediately clear that the RSF was in control. I saw their fighters patrolling the streets in armed vehicles and had a brief conversation with some of them, when they showed me their anti-vehicle rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) did not take long to realise how differently they viewed the conflict. Their commander insisted there were no civilians like Hafiza, Mostafa and Manahel living in el-Fasher."The person who stays in a war zone is participating in the war, there are no civilians, they are all from the army," he claimed el-Geneina was now peaceful and that most of its residents - "around 90%" - had come back. "Homes that were previously empty are now occupied again."But hundreds of thousands of the city's residents are still living as refugees in Chad, and I saw many deserted and destroyed neighbourhoods as we drove around. With the minders watching us, it was hard to get a true picture of life in el-Geneina. They took us to a bustling vegetable market, where I asked people about their time I asked someone a question, I noticed them glance at the minder over my shoulder before answering that everything was "fine", apart from a few comments about high my minder would often whisper in my ear afterwards, saying people were exaggerating about the ended our trip with an interview with Tijani Karshoum, the governor of West Darfur whose predecessor was killed in May 2023 after accusing the RSF of committing was his first interview since 2023, and he maintained he was a neutral civilian during the el-Geneina unrest and did not side with anyone. "We have turned a new page with the slogan of peace, coexistence, moving beyond the bitterness of the past," he said, adding that the UN's casualty figures were "exaggerated".Also in the room was a man who we understood to be a representative of the answers to nearly all my questions were almost identical, whether I was asking about accusations of ethnic cleansing or about what happened to the former governor, Khamis two weeks after I spoke to Karshoum, the European Union imposed sanctions on him, saying he "holds responsibility in the fatal attack" on his predecessor and that he had "been involved in planning, directing or committing… serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, including killings, rape and other serious forms of sexual and gender-based violence, and abduction".I followed up with him to get his response to these accusations, and he said: "Since I am a suspect in this matter, I believe any statement from me would lack credibility."But he stated that he "was never part of the tribal conflict and remained at home during the clashes" and added that he was not involved in any violations of humanitarian law."Accusations of killings, abductions, or rape must be addressed through an independent investigation" with which he would co-operate, Karshoum said."From the start of the conflict in Khartoum, we pushed for peace and proposed well-known initiatives to prevent violence in our socially fragile state," he added. Given the stark contrast between the narrative promoted by those in control of el-Geneina and the countless stories I heard from refugees across the border, it is hard to imagine people ever returning same goes for 12 million other Sudanese people who have fled their homes and are either refugees abroad or living in camps inside the end, Hafiza, Mostafa and Manahel found life in el-Fasher unbearable and in November 2024 all three left the city to stay in nearby the military regaining control of the capital, Khartoum, in March, Darfur remains the last major region where the paramilitaries are still largely in control - and that has turned el-Fasher into an even more intense battlefield."El-Fasher has become scary," Manahel said as she packed her belongings."We are leaving without knowing our fate. Will we ever return to el-Fasher? When will this war end? We don't know what will happen."
