RSF kidnaps women, children from Darfur camp, sources say

August 23, 2025 (EL FASHER) – The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) kidnapped six displaced women and their children from the Abou Shouk camp in North Darfur, local sources said on Saturday, the latest in a series of rights abuses reported in the besieged city of El Fasher.

The paramilitary group has entered the camp, home to 190,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), and committed abuses including killings and abductions, according to rights groups and witness accounts.

The women, aged 18 to 55, were taken along with their children, sources told Sudan Tribune, sparking fears they could be subjected to severe abuse.

The report follows a statement on Friday from the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, which said the RSF had abducted at least 40 displaced people from the same camp on August 16. Their whereabouts remain unknown.

The U.N. agency also said it had documented the deaths of 89 civilians in El Fasher and the camp this month, blaming the killings on RSF attacks and demanding an immediate halt to the violence. The agency added that the humanitarian situation in the city had reached a critical stage.

The RSF has launched a new wave of attacks over the past week in its bid to seize control of El Fasher, the last army stronghold in the vast Darfur region. The city has been under siege since April 2024, cutting off access to food, medicine and other aid and worsening a hunger crisis, according to aid groups.

Earlier this month, the North Darfur Human Rights Observatory reported that the RSF was holding dozens of women at two locations in El Fasher. Some detainees were forced into marriage, while others became pregnant as a result of abuse, the monitoring group said in a report on August 2.