SLM-Minawi accuses RSF of abducting 100 people fleeing besieged El Fasher

June 12, 2025 (EL FASHER) – A Darfur armed group allied with the Sudanese army on Thursday accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of abducting 100 people as they tried to flee El Fasher, the capital of the North Darfur state that has been under siege since April 2024.

Mohamed Adam Kosh, a North Darfur official in the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Minni Minawi, said the RSF intercepted a group of civilians on Wednesday and detained them at a facility east of El Fasher.

The RSF was using the captives for forced conscription to “fuel the war,” Kosh told Sudan Tribune. He said the group was transported in a truck escorted by three combat vehicles.

Sudan Tribune could not independently verify the claims. An RSF spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The incident comes amid a worsening humanitarian crisis in El Fasher, the last major city in the vast Darfur region not under RSF control. Residents have been fleeing the city in increasing numbers due to a lack of food and medicine, with the RSF accused of blocking aid deliveries.

The Sudanese army’s 6th Infantry Division in El Fasher said on Wednesday that the RSF was luring people out of the city with offers of food, before separating men for “forced recruitment.”

North Darfur’s governor, Al-Hafiz Bakhit Mohammed, urged civilians not to leave the city in response to RSF calls, warning they could be forced to fight.

The governor’s office announced it would provide additional support to community kitchens to alleviate food shortages and implement new measures to control market prices, which have soared due to the siege.