Sixteen-year-old Mounir Abderahmane walked for 11 days to reach the Tine refugee camp in Chad after escaping the violence in El-Fasher. He had been caring for his wounded father in the Saudi hospital when Rapid Support Forces fighters stormed the building. He heard gunshots as nurses were taken away. Terrified, he fled with his father, who died on the journey west.
The RSF seized El-Fasher on October 26 after an 18-month siege. The group, rooted in the Janjaweed militia, intensified drone strikes before the final assault. Residents hid in cramped shelters and survived on scraps. Many saw bodies scattered across the streets each time they stepped outside for air.
Families used brief pauses in fighting to escape. Some fled on carts that swerved around corpses. Others hid in abandoned homes filled with dead civilians. Shells tore through groups of fleeing relatives. Many walked for hours without stopping to look back.
At the city’s edge, escapees climbed through a deep trench filled with bodies. Fighters at checkpoints demanded large payments and, according to witnesses, carried out theft and rape. Nearly 90,000 people have fled El-Fasher in two weeks. Many reached Chad exhausted, hungry, and desperate for safety.
