RSF kills at least 15 civilians fleeing El Fasher

August 2, 2025 (EL FASHER)– At least 15 civilians were shot dead by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Saturday as they fled El Fasher in North Darfur state, local sources told Sudan Tribune.

The civilians were reportedly leaving the city in response to calls from prominent leaders allied with the RSF to evacuate what they have designated an active conflict zone.

“At least 15 people were executed on Saturday morning by RSF gunfire while trying to reach the town of Garni, west of El Fasher,” one source said. The sources added that a number of young men were captured after being accused of loyalty to the Sudanese army and the allied Joint Force.

The RSF and its allies had designated Garni as a gathering point for evacuees, who were to be moved to areas controlled by other armed factions.

The calls for evacuation have been championed by figures such as al-Hadi Idris, head of the Sudan Liberation Movement–Transitional Council, who has also opposed aid deliveries to the besieged city.

However, a rival faction leader accused the RSF’s allies of deceit.

Mohamed Adam, a commander of the Sudan Liberation Movement faction led by Minni Minawi, told Sudan Tribune that those who responded to the evacuation calls “were betrayed and brutally killed.” He accused Idris and another faction leader, Tahir Hajer, of luring people “to their inevitable fate of being killed and mutilated.”

Pro-RSF social media channels broadcast videos showing their members killing several men in civilian clothes and throwing their bodies into a large trench on the city’s outskirts. An RSF commander in one video claimed the dead were soldiers trying to escape.

Meanwhile, the army-allied Joint Force said it had repelled a new RSF assault on the city Saturday, the 225th such attack since the RSF began its push to capture the last government stronghold in Darfur on May 11, 2024.

A spokesman for the Joint Force, Ahmed Hussein Mustafa, said in a statement that dozens of RSF fighters were “neutralised,” including a special forces commander he identified as a Colombian national.

The RSF is accused of using Colombian mercenaries to operate sophisticated weapons systems. The Sudanese army has previously said it seized Colombian identity documents from an RSF supply convoy ambushed en route from Libya.