'No one could stop it': Sudanese describe mass rapes while fleeing El-Fasher

Displaced Sudanese women who fled El-Fasher after the city fell to RSF, stand in front of their makeshift shelter in the Um Yanqur camp, located on the southwestern edge of Tawila, in war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region on November 3, 2025 [AFP]

Sudanese mother Amira wakes up every day trembling, haunted by scenes of mass rapes she saw while fleeing the western city of El-Fasher after it was overrun by paramilitaries.

Following an 18-month siege marked by starvation and bombardment, El-Fasher -- the last army stronghold in the western Darfur region -- fell on October 26 to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been at war with the military since April 2023.