CAIRO — A chilling firsthand account from Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim exposes the systematic brutality paramilitary forces inflicted upon el-Fasher, the Sudanese army’s final strategic bastion in Darfur. The 28-year-old physician provided The Associated Press with a detailed testimony of his three-day fight for survival after Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militants overran the city in late October.
United Nations officials now characterize the conquered city as a ‘massive crime scene,’ estimating that merely 40% of el-Fasher’s 260,000 residents survived the onslaught. Thousands are believed to have been killed, though precise casualty figures remain impossible to verify due to the city’s isolation. A humanitarian assessment team that gained limited access in December found the urban center largely depopulated and devoid of visible life.
The RSF, descended from the notorious Janjaweed militias implicated in early 2000s genocides, had besieged el-Fasher for months prior to the assault. Dr. Ibrahim described desperate conditions where civilians resorted to consuming animal fodder as food supplies vanished. Despite his family’s earlier evacuation after their home was shelled, Ibrahim remained at the Saudi Maternity Hospital—the city’s last functional medical facility—as RSF forces tightened their blockade.
The final assault commenced around 5 a.m. on October 26 with intensified shelling. Recognizing the city’s imminent fall, Ibrahim and a colleague attempted to reach a nearby army base just 1.5 kilometers away—a journey that ultimately required nine hours of navigating through urban combat. The physician witnessed widespread carnage while moving between buildings, occasionally jumping between rooftops to avoid detection. He described taking refuge in an empty water tank while listening to the screams of civilians being pursued amid continuous shelling.
RSF fighters attacked the hospital shortly after the doctors’ departure, killing one nurse and wounding three others. The World Health Organization later confirmed militants stormed the facility again two days later, executing at least 460 people and abducting six healthcare workers.
Upon reaching the military base, Ibrahim found thousands of refugees—primarily women, children, and elderly civilians—with many requiring medical attention. He utilized clothing scraps to dress wounds before joining approximately 200 evacuees attempting to reach Tawila, a town 70 kilometers away.
The escape route proved deadly as the group encountered 3-meter-deep trenches dug by RSF forces to enforce their blockade. Many refugees turned back after failing to scale the embankments, their fate remaining unknown. At the final trench, Ibrahim witnessed RSF fighters open fire on climbers, leaving five dead and numerous wounded.
The survivors faced further atrocities when RSF fighters captured Ibrahim’s group near Tawila on October 27. The militants chained the doctors to motorcycles, forcing them to sprint behind the vehicles before subjecting them to interrogation and ransom demands. After initial demands of $20,000 per doctor—an astronomical sum in a nation where average monthly salaries range $30-50—the captors severely beat Ibrahim for laughing at the figure. The militants eventually accepted $8,000 per doctor after hours of abuse and death threats.
Blindfolded and transported in a truck filled with fighters, the physicians were abandoned in RSF-controlled territory rather than released in Tawila as promised. Following horse cart tracks through the darkness, they eventually reached safety where colleagues who had seen social media footage of their capture wept at their survival, considering their return nothing short of miraculous.
