Rapid Support Forces killed 300 women in first 2 days after entering El-Fasher: Sudanese minister

By Ahmed Satti, Adel Abdelrheem and Rania Abu Shamala

KHARTOUM, Sudan/ISTANBUL (AA) - Sudanese Minister of State for Social Welfare, Salma Ishaq, revealed to Anadolu on Saturday that Rapid Support Forces (RSF) killed 300 women during the first two days after entering El-Fasher in the capital of North Darfur State in western Sudan.​​​​​​​

“The RSF killed 300 women during the first two days of their entry into El-Fasher,” Ishaq said in statements, adding that the women were “subjected to sexual assaults, violence, and torture.”

“Anyone leaving El-Fasher toward Tawila (in North Darfur) is at risk, as the El-Fasher–Tawila road has become a road of death,” Ishaq pointed out.

She added: “There are still families in El-Fasher who are being subjected to dragging, torture, humiliation and sexual violence.”

The minister stressed that “what happened in El-Fasher is a systematic act of ethnic cleansing, a major crime in which everyone is complicit through their silence.”

On Oct. 26, the Rapid Support Forces seized control of El-Fasher and committed “massacres” against civilians, according to local and international organizations, amid warnings that the assault could entrench the geographical partition of Sudan.

On Wednesday, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) admitted that “violations” had occurred by his forces in El-Fasher, claiming that investigation committees had been formed.

Since April 15, 2023, the Sudanese army and the RSF have been locked in a war that regional and international mediations have failed to end. The conflict has killed 20,000 victims and displaced more than 15 million as refugees and internally displaced persons, according to UN and local reports.