Army bases fall to RSF in Sudan forcing thousands to flee – as harrowing details of sieges emerge
Three out of four army headquarters in each of Darfur’s state capitals have fallen to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan – pushing thousands of people further into peril.
Among the thousands crossing the border into Chad so far this month to flee the violence are many mothers and children with no possessions, according to charity groups.
The RSF gains are the latest harrowing developments in more than half a year of fighting between the Darfur-born “janjaweed” militia turned paramilitary group and their former security partners and the national army, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
Clashes erupted earlier this year between the RSF and the SAF in a fight for political power that has killed thousands of people.
As the RSF captured the 15th infantry division army headquarters in Ardamata – a suburb of the West Darfur capital Al Geneina, home to the city’s barracks and a camp for internally displaced people – a full-blown siege was under way.
There are videos of the RSF rounding up army soldiers – along with footage of them whipping men and young boys and beating them with rifles.
“Sons of b*****!” they yell, and the dust rises as they deliver more blows.
Various human rights monitors from Darfur confirmed that the victims of violence in this particular video were civilians held in the Ardamata area – and punished on the basis of their Masalit tribe and assumed affinity with the army.
‘No one could go in or out’
Voice notes exclusively shared with Sky News – recorded in Al Geneina on the day – detail the siege conditions imposed by the RSF and allied Arab militias on the civilian population as they rounded up army soldiers on 1 November.
“The army is surrendering and asking for guarantees so that they can leave,” says one Al Geneina resident.
They added: “But the Arabs said they won’t let the head of army intelligence go even if he surrenders and said he caused a lot of problems for them and many died.”
Another resident describes the lockdown.
“The people who could escape walked by foot from Ardamata to Al Geneina [city].
“But between afternoon and sunset prayer, they closed the road and whoever was in stayed in – and whoever was out stayed out – no one could go in or out.”
She goes on to list the roads that were closed off.
“Um Duweim Way was closed. The way to Durti was also closed and they beat people up and took their phones,” she says.
“The only way was through Tile’a but some people also said it is closed and they are looting people who try and take that way.”
People have been heading across the border to Chad to escape the violence
Thousands forced to flee across border with nothing
Testimony shared by another Al Geneina resident at the time via text says “the 15th infantry division is now besieged from every direction”.
Some civilians and dozens of troops were eventually released and fled to Chad for safety where they laid down their arms.
The border authority told Sky News they were absorbed by the long-established Sudan-Chad joint border force.
Medecins Sans Frontieres has said that 7,000 people crossed the border from West Darfur to eastern Chad in the first three days of November alone.
Many of them are mothers and children who fled with nothing.
“The men are definitely not allowed to leave so they tried to get the women out,” says one of the residents via a voice note.
Multiple sources in Al Geneina say that hundreds were killed during the takeover, though the final number of deaths is unknown and difficult to measure.
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Thousands flee the war in Sudan
‘They use sexual violence against women’
The siege of Ardamata by the RSF is almost a replica of their siege of Al Geneina on 15 June that led to a city-wide massacre.
Sky News was able to verify mass graves where bodies were dumped in the aftermath.
A human rights defender and researcher of gender-based violence from Al Geneina, who fled after the June massacre, says this pattern is a pathway to increased sexual assaults on women.
“After these men are executed, there are a lot of widowed women who are exposed,” she says on the condition of anonymity.
“What I saw from these militias is that they use sexual violence against women – young girls and even the elderly – who are also whipped by the RSF and displaced en masse.”
Several women and girls have shared horrifying experiences of sexual assault with her since the war started on 15 April.
“The women being harmed by the RSF cannot now be left to their protection,” she added.
Read more:
Sudan’s escalating conflict sees Khartoum descend into chaos
Refugees with gunshot wounds stream in from Darfur
Mothers and children have been leaving Darfur with hardly any possessions
Entire neighbourhoods surrounded by fighting despite peace talks
In Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, entire neighbourhoods in Omdurman and Bahri have been besieged and cut off from food, water and electricity.
They are surrounded by fighting and RSF positions, with no humanitarian corridors allowing for entry of aid or medical care.
Some concerned family members have not been able to reach loved ones there in two weeks.
Shelling by the RSF and army airstrikes have been killing innocent civilians in the capital since the early days of the war.
Peace talks in Jeddah have failed to produce a ceasefire agreement between the army and RSF that would provide much-needed safety and relief.
Both sides have announced a commitment to aid access, a UN-led humanitarian forum and a separate communication mechanism.
However, these outcomes carry little credence as fighting continues on the ground and after several false ceasefire declarations made early in the war.
On 11 October, Sudan’s UN representative, aligned with the army, voted no on a UN Human Rights Council vote on a fact-finding mission to investigate abuses committed during this conflict.
Pro-Western candidate Nicusor Dan has unexpectedly beaten hard-right populist George Simion in the Romanian presidential election.
Mr Simion, 38, and his rival – a centrist who’s mayor of Bucharest – faced off in the second round of the contest.
According to the official tally, Mr Dan was leading by nearly nine percentage points with more than 98% of the votes counted.
Pic: Reuters
Mr Dan and his supporters celebrated the exit polls. Pic: Reuters
After exit polls suggested he wasn’t going to win, Trump-supporting Mr Simion rejected the result and said estimates put him 400,000 votes ahead.
Speaking after voting ended, Mr Simion said his election was “clear” as he posted on Facebook: “I won!!! I am the new President of Romania and I am giving back the power to the Romanians!”
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George Simion on Trump, the EU – and his message to UK
Romania’s last election was annulled after its highest court ruled the leading candidate, nationalist Calin Georgescu, should be disqualified due to claims of electoral interference by Russia.
The result is surprising because in the first round, 38-year-old Mr Simion, founder of the right-wing Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), took 40.96% of the vote – almost 20 points ahead.
George Simion rejected the polls but official counting saw him slip behind. Pic: Reuters
Supporters of Mr Dan celebrated on the streets of the capital Bucharest. Pic: AP
An opinion poll on Friday had it much closer, but still suggested the two men were virtually tied.
Mr Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician, is running as an independent and has pledged to clamp down on corruption.
He is also staunchly pro-EU and NATO, and has said Romania’s support for Ukraine is vital for its own security.
When voting closed at 9pm local time, 11.6 million people – about 64% of eligible voters – had cast ballots. About 1.64 million Romanians living abroad also took part.
About 11.6 million people – 64% of eligible voters – cast ballots. Pic: AP
Read more from Sky News:
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The election is being closely watched across Europe amid a rise of support for President Donald Trump.
After polls closed, Mr Dan said “elections are not about politicians” but about communities and that in the latest vote “a community of Romanians has won, a community that wants a profound change in Romania”.
“When Romania goes through difficult times, let us remember the strength of this Romanian society,” he said.
“There is also a community that lost today’s elections. A community that is rightly outraged by the way politics has been conducted in Romania up to now.”
Israel has said it will allow a “basic quantity of food” into the besieged enclave of Gaza to avoid a “starvation crisis” following a near three-month blockade.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the decision was “based on the operational need to enable the expansion of the military operation to defeat Hamas”.
Gaza, where local authorities say more than 53,000 people have died in Israel’s 19-month campaign, has been under a complete blockade on humanitarian aid since 2 March.
It comes as global food security experts warn of famine across the territory and after a UN-backed report issued last Monday which warned one in five people in Gaza were facing starvation.
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Israel ramps up bombing in Gaza
The statement from the prime minister’s office said it would “allow a basic quantity of food to be brought in for the population in order to make certain that no starvation crisis develops in the Gaza Strip”.
“Such a crisis would endanger the continuation of Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ to defeat Hamas,” it added.
“Israel will act to deny Hamas’s ability to take control of the distribution of humanitarian assistance in order to ensure that the assistance does not reach the Hamas terrorists.”
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Gaza is ‘a slaughterhouse’ says surgeon
It comes after a British surgeon working in Gaza said in a video to Sky News the enclave is now “a slaughterhouse” amid Israeli bombardment.
Israel has just ramped up its offensive in Gaza, with Palestinian health officials reporting at least 130 people were killed overnight into Sunday.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed troops had begun “extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip”.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 464 people had died in Israeli military strikes in the week to Sunday.
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In a statement on Sunday, IDF said its air force struck “over 670 Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip to disrupt enemy preparations and support ground operations” over the past week.
Israel has launched an escalation to increase pressure on Hamas, seize territory, displace Palestinians to the south and take greater control over the distribution of aid.
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A British surgeon working in southern Gaza has compared the region to a “slaughterhouse” because of the daily bombardment from Israeli forces.
Dr Tom Potokar, who is based at the European Hospital near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, offered his assessment of Israel’s military offensive after Palestinian health officials reported at least 130 people were killed overnight into Sunday.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have confirmed their troops have begun “extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip”.
In a video, Dr Potokar said it was “another day of devastation here in Gaza”, adding: “The stories coming from the north… absolutely horrific… particularly around the Indonesian Hospital.”
“I mean, it’s difficult to describe in words what’s happening here… [with the] constant sound of bombardment jets overhead.
“If Cambodia was the killing fields, then Gaza now is the slaughterhouse.”
Mourners at a funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at Al Shifa hospital, in Gaza. Pic: Reuters
His reference to Cambodia’s killing fields refers to when more than a million people were murdered in mass executions and buried by the extreme communist guerrilla group, the Khmer Rouge, under Pol Pot, between 1975 and 1979.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 464 people had died in Israeli military strikes in the week to Sunday.
In a statement on Sunday, IDF said its air force struck “over 670 Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip to disrupt enemy preparations and support ground operations” over the past week.
A family in grief at a funeral on Sunday in Deir al Balah, central Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Dr Potokar described the impact on those on the ground, saying: “We’ve been operating all morning so far and [treating] awful explosive injuries… [including] one young woman with leg fracture and shoulder fracture and a large wound on her buttock, who came in yesterday and is not yet aware that everyone in our family was killed in the onslaught.”
Israel has launched an escalation of its war in Gaza to ramp up pressure on Hamas, seize territory, displace Palestinians to the south and take greater control over the distribution of aid.
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Israel ramps up bombing in Gaza
On Sunday, it announced and launched “extensive” new ground operations in Gaza.
It came after airstrikes killed more than 100 people, including dozens of children, overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics said, and forced northern Gaza’s main hospital to close.
A spokesperson for the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said: “Complete families were wiped off the civil registration record by Israeli bombardment”.
The ministry also said the bombardment had forced the closure of the Indonesian Hospital, the main hospital serving people in northern Gaza.
Nasser hospital, in the southern city of Khan Younis, said more than 48 people – mostly women and children – were killed in the area which includes tents sheltering displaced people.
In Deir al Balah, in central Gaza, at least 12 people were killed in three separate strikes, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and the Nuseirat camp’s Awda Hospital.
Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry and the Palestinian Civil Defence – which operates under the Hamas-run government – reported that 19 people were killed in several strikes in Jabalia in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes.
Read more from Sky News:
How Israel has escalated Gaza bombing campaign
Ceasefire talks are taking place in Qatar this weekend – with Israel saying they involve discussions on ending the war as well as a truce and hostage deal.
A statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said any lasting truce must include the demilitarisation of Gaza as well as the exile of Hamas militants.
But a senior Israeli official added there had been little progress so far during talks in Qatar’s capital Doha.
Sky News Arabia reported Hamas had proposed freeing about half its Israeli hostages in exchange for a two-month ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
A Palestinian official close to the discussions said: “Hamas is flexible about the number of hostages it can free, but the problem has always been over Israel’s commitment to end the war.”
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