Through Hell in Darfur: A Doctor's Harrowing Escape from Besieged el-Fasher Reveals Scale of Atrocities

Through Hell in Darfur: A Doctor's Harrowing Escape from Besieged el-Fasher Reveals Scale of Atrocities

CAIRO — For Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, the collapse of Sudan’s last army stronghold in Darfur wasn’t a distant headline. It was the moment he began running for his life, darting through smoke-choked streets strewn with bodies, convinced each sunset might be his last.

His escape from el-Fasher in late October—a city now largely deserted and described by U.N. officials as a “massive crime scene”—offers one of the first detailed accounts of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) brutal takeover. The assault, which lasted three days, appears to have been a watershed in Sudan’s devastating 18-month civil war, cementing RSF control over the Darfur region and leaving thousands of civilians unaccounted for.

“All around we saw people running and falling to the ground,” the 28-year-old physician told The Associated Press, recounting the offensive that began Oct. 26. Three months later, the full horror is only coming into focus: U.N. estimates suggest only 40% of the city’s 260,000 residents managed to flee alive.

A City Under Siege, A Hospital in the Crosshairs

El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, had been encircled for months by the RSF—a force born from the notorious Janjaweed militias accused of genocide in the 2000s and now, by the U.S. government, of committing genocide in the current conflict. As food ran out, civilians resorted to eating animal fodder. Ibrahim’s family fled after their home was shelled in April, but he stayed at the Saudi Maternity Hospital, one of the few remaining health workers.

When intense shelling erupted at dawn on Oct. 26, “it was obvious that the city was falling.” He and a colleague decided to flee on foot toward an army base just 1.5 kilometers away—a journey that would take nine nightmarish hours. Shortly after they left, RSF fighters attacked the hospital, killing a nurse. Two days later, the World Health Organization reported the facility was stormed again, leaving at least 460 dead.

Ibrahim’s sprint to safety meant jumping between rooftops, hiding in an empty water tank while listening to the screams of those chased by gunmen, and passing dozens of corpses. He finally reached the base, where he used scraps of cloth to tend to scores of wounded refugees.

Trenches, Gunfire, and a Ransom Demand

The journey grew more perilous. Leaving that night with 200 others for the town of Tawila, the group encountered a series of 3-meter-deep trenches dug by the RSF to tighten their blockade. At the final trench, those climbing out came under fire. When the shooting stopped, Ibrahim saw five people dead.

The survivors were then captured by RSF fighters. Chained to motorcycles and forced to run behind them, Ibrahim and his colleague were taken to a village, interrogated, and held for ransom. “They said, ‘You are doctors. You have money,’” Ibrahim recalled. After being beaten for laughing at an initial demand of $20,000 each, a payment of $8,000 per doctor—a colossal sum in Sudan—was negotiated. After a blindfolded truck ride and being abandoned in hostile territory, they followed cart tracks to finally reach Tawila.

There, a colleague from the hospital embraced him in tears, having seen a Facebook video of their capture and assumed they were dead. “He didn’t imagine I was still alive,” Ibrahim said. “It was a miracle.”

The RSF did not respond to AP’s requests for comment on Ibrahim’s account or the broader allegations of atrocities in el-Fasher. With the city isolated, his testimony stands as a rare and damning record of the human cost of its fall.

Voices & Reaction

Amira Khalid, Humanitarian Aid Worker (Nairobi): “Dr. Ibrahim’s account tragically confirms our worst fears from the ground. El-Fasher’s siege wasn’t just a military objective; it was a systematic trapping of civilians. The international community’s failure to secure access and protection is a moral catastrophe.”

Professor Elias Vance, African Security Analyst (London): “The fall of el-Fasher is a strategic turning point. It gives the RSF total dominion over Darfur, effectively redrawing the map of the conflict. The methods described—trenches, targeted hospital attacks, ransom kidnappings—point to a deliberate strategy of terror to depopulate and control.”

Sarah Chen, Political Commentator (Online Blog): “Where is the global outrage? We have live-streamed conflicts elsewhere, but Sudan is being erased in real-time through a calculated news blackout. Stories like this doctor’s are met with a shrug. It’s disgusting.”

David O. Mensah, Regional Diplomat (Accra): “This underscores the urgent need for a coordinated African-led mediation, backed by real leverage. The war is destabilizing the entire region. The focus must shift from merely feeding the displaced to halting the violence that creates them.”