RSF detains, tortures civilians fleeing El Fasher, former detainees say

September 10, 2025 (EL FASHER) – Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are detaining and torturing civilians trying to flee the besieged city of El Fasher, holding them for ransom in makeshift prisons under harsh conditions, former detainees have said.

Witnesses told the Sudan Tribune that the paramilitary RSF and its allied militias are intercepting people attempting to reach safer areas, sometimes shooting and killing them.

The RSF has set up prisons in schools and shipping containers in the town of Abu Zureiqa, and also uses a medical supply headquarters and the Zamzam camp for displaced people as detention sites, the sources said. Detainees are subjected to physical torture, denied medical care, and have had blood drawn from them.

One former detainee, Ahmed Abu al-Qasim, said he counted more than 150 people held in a school in Abu Zureiqa, including women, children, and injured people in urgent need of treatment.

Two witnesses who were recently released after reaching the town of Shangil Tobai said the RSF tortures detainees whose families cannot pay large ransoms. One said his family spent five million Sudanese pounds (about $1,500) to secure his freedom.

The abuses are occurring despite pledges by the RSF and its allies to provide safe passage for civilians leaving the front lines. The groups had designated a collection point for evacuees, promising to move them to areas controlled by other armed factions.

Thousands of civilians have been subjected to gross violations, and dozens remain missing, according to the report.