RSF accused of killing, forcibly drawing blood from civilians fleeing El Fasher

September 6, 2025 (EL FASHER) – Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias are killing, kidnapping, and forcibly drawing blood from civilians trying to flee the North Darfur capital, El Fasher, survivors told Sudan Tribune.

The attacks on the road to the town of Tawila have led to multiple deaths, they said. Tawila, the destination for most people fleeing the violence, now shelters over 500,000 displaced people facing severe humanitarian conditions.

Survivors and eyewitnesses said the alleged crimes included murder, arbitrary detention, and drawing blood from captives without medical precautions. Three survivors who reached Tawila said that at least 10 civilians died shortly after having their blood taken.

Younis, a man who fled the Abu Shouk camp, said an RSF unit stopped his group near the town of Gurney on Aug. 26. He said fighters beat them before forcing six young men into an ambulance, where medics drew their blood. Three of the men later died from complications, Younis said.

Two other survivors separately confirmed the practice, blaming it for the deaths of at least 7 people between Aug. 1 and Aug. 30.

The violence on the route has escalated, according to Mohammed Khamis Doudah, a spokesman for displaced people at Zamzam camp. He said the RSF and its allies killed about 15 civilians on the road in the last 2 weeks, leaving dozens of bodies unburied.

Doudah accused the allied Tasis coalition of luring people out of El Fasher to be captured for ransom. He also said the RSF has set up field hospitals in Zamzam camp, which it converted into a military barracks, to take blood from healthy young men to treat its own wounded fighters.

A spokesman for the Abu Shouk camp reported that an emergency team had documented the bodies of nearly 90 people executed on the El Fasher-Tawila road, which residents now call the “road of death.”

He said the RSF controls all exit routes from El Fasher and that about 60% of those who tried to flee recently were killed on suspicion of supporting the Sudanese army. Those killed included people trying to return to the city to rescue relatives, whom the RSF accused of smuggling goods.

The RSF and the Tasis coalition have designated the Gurney area, at El Fasher’s western gate, as a collection point for fleeing civilians, from which they are supposed to be moved to other territories.