Sudan war: Torture, rape and forced starvation as paramilitaries suffocate besieged city
Faces marked by terror and torment fill North Darfur’s displacement camps.
Their eyes fill with despair as they describe what they have survived during a 16-month siege on one of Sudan‘s oldest cities.
It has entrapped their loved ones and spread armed violence, leaving village after village burnt to the ground.
Extreme cases of torture, rape and forced starvation are shared again and again in horrifying detail.
This elderly man told us he was blinded by the RSF when he tried to flee
Women collapse into sobs as they contemplate the future and the elderly raise their hands to the sky, trembling and empty, to pray for overdue relief.
In shelters which have seen little to no humanitarian aid, camp directors hand us lists showing requests for clean water, medical supplies and food. Even the trademark white United Nations tarp is scarce.
Some frayed tent material is used to close the gaps in the stick-lined walls that surround the traditional huts displaced families have built for themselves.
They use them as a temporary refuge from the battles that rage for control of the regional capital, Al Fashir.
Instead of fleeing into nearby Chad, they wait here for news that the siege has been lifted and they may finally be able to return.
But that news may never come.
The battle for Al Fashir – and Sudan
Al Fashir is being suffocated to death by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as they push to claim full control of the Darfur region as a base for their parallel government, after the military recaptured the capital Khartoum and other key sites in central Sudan.
Close to a million people are facing famine in Al Fashir and surrounding camps as the RSF enforces a full blockade, launching armed attacks on volunteers and aid workers risking their lives to bring in food.
Inside the city, thousands are bombarded by almost daily shelling from surrounding RSF troops.
The RSF have physically reinforced their siege with a berm – a raised earth mound. First spotted by Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, the berm is visible from space.
The Sudan war started in April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and the RSF broke out in Khartoum.
UN agencies said in July that some 40,000 people have been killed and almost 13 million displaced.
Several mediation attempts have failed to secure a humanitarian access mechanism or any lulls in fighting.
‘We could hear some of them being killed’
As the bombs drop on Al Fashir, war-wounded civilians travel by road to the last functioning hospital in the state. But the beds in Tina Hospital are largely empty.
The facility cannot afford to provide free or subsidised treatment to the people that need it.
“It is so difficult. This hospital cannot care for a patient without money,” says Dr Usman Adam, standing over an emaciated teenager with a gunshot wound in his stomach.
“We need support.
“Either medication or money to the victims – by anyhow, we need support.”
Maaz, 18, a victim of a gunshot wound, is treated in the last functioning hospital in North Darfur
In nearby camps, women are grieving brothers, fathers, and husbands killed, missing or still trapped inside Al Fashir. Many of them were forced to face Rapid Support Forces (RSF) torture as they tried to escape.
“If you don’t have money to pay ransom, they take you inside a room that looks like an office and say ‘if you don’t have anything we will kill you or worse’,” says 20-year-old mother Zahra, speaking to us at a girls’ school in Tine that is now a makeshift shelter.
“They beat the men, robbed them and whipped them. We could hear some of them being killed while we women were rounded up on a mat and threatened. We gave them money, but they took the other girls into a room, and we couldn’t tell if they were beaten or raped.”
Zahra was threatened by the RSF and heard people being killed
The women around her on the mat echo Zahra’s anguish.
“They beat us, tortured us, humiliated us – everything you can imagine!” one yells out in tears.
A mother named Leila sits next to her four children and stares down at the ground. I ask her if she has hope of returning to Al Fashir, and she starts to say no as the women nearby shout: “Yes! We will return by the grace of God.”
Leila complies with weak affirmation, but her eyes have the haunting resignation of permanent loss. Her city, as she knows it, is gone.
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Babies and young children silently stare out from their laps. Many of them wear the signs of physical shock. An older woman on the mat tells us her infant grandson was blinded by the extreme conditions of their escape and takes us to see him and his mother in their hut.
“We fled Al Fashir to Tawila camp while I was heavily pregnant,” says Nadeefa, as her son Mustafa cries on her lap, unable to focus his eyes.
Mustafa was blinded as a newborn after his mother fled the RSF
“After I had given birth, we made the journey here. Mustafa was only 16 days old and could not handle the harsh conditions. As time went on, we realised he couldn’t see. We think he was blinded as a newborn on the road.”
Her mother and mother-in-law sit on the mat next to her and take turns trying to calm Mustafa down. Her mother-in-law Husna tells us that her own son, Mustafa’s father, is missing.
“We don’t know where my son is,” she says. “He disappeared as we fled.”
Mustafa’s father went missing as the family fled the RSF
‘They killed my children’
An elderly woman, Hawa, approaches us in the same yard with her own story to tell.
“These people [the RSF] killed my children. They killed my in-laws. They orphaned my grandchildren. They killed two of my sons.
“One of my daughters gave birth on the road and I brought her with me to this camp. I don’t have anything,” she says, trembling as she stands.
“They raped my two younger daughters in front of me. There is nothing more than that. They fled from shame and humiliation. I haven’t seen them since.”
The RSF raped Hawa’s daughters in front of her
Dr Afaf Ishaq, the camp director and emergency response room (EER) volunteer, is sobbing nearby.
“I have dealt with thousands and thousands of cases, I am on the verge of a mental breakdown,” she says.
“Sometimes in the morning, I have my tea and forget that I need to eat or how to function. I just sit listening to testimony after testimony in my head and feel like I am hallucinating.”
Everyone we speak to points to her as a source of relief and help, but Dr Ishaq is largely carrying the burden alone. When haphazard financial support for the ERR community kitchens ends, she says people flock to her complaining of hunger.
Dr Ishaq lives in the camp by herself after fleeing her home in Khartoum at the start of the war in April 2023. She says she quickly escaped after her husband joined the RSF.
Dr Afaf Ishaq has seen thousands of cases of violence and sexual violence
Since then, she has been constantly reminded of the atrocities committed by her husband’s ranks in Khartoum, her hometown Al Fashir and the ethnic violence they are carrying out across the region.
“The RSF focuses on ethnicity,” she says. “If you are from the Zaghawa, Massalit, Fur – from Darfuri tribes – you should be killed, you should be raped.
“If they find that your mother or father are from another tribe like Rizeigat or Mahamid – they won’t rape you, they won’t touch you.”
The RSF has besieged Al Fashir for 16 months. File pic: Reuters
A message for the West
In January, the Biden administration determined that the RSF are carrying out genocide in Darfur, 20 years after former US secretary of state Colin Powell made the declaration in 2004.
But the designation has done little to quell the violence.
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Sudan’s government has accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of supplying arms and logistical support to the RSF. The UAE denies these claims but many on the ground in Darfur say its role in this war is accepted as fact.
The silence from the UAE’s allies in the West, including the UK and US, is felt loudly here – punctuated by gunfire and daily bombs.
Dr Ishaq fled her home in Khartoum at the start of the war after her husband joined the RSF
Dr Ishaq’s distress ratches up when I ask her about neglect from the international community.
“I direct my blame to the international community. How can they speak of human rights and ignore what is happening here?
“Where is the humanity?”
World
Israel says first hostages handed to Red Cross as Palestinian prisoners also expected to be released
Israel says Hamas has handed over the first seven hostages to the Red Cross to be released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
The remaining Israeli hostages are being released by Hamas after being held in Gaza for more than two years, in exchange for over 1,900 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The Red Cross will drive the hostages to Israeli security forces, who will take them into Israel, where they will be reunited with family and flown by helicopter to hospitals.
Follow the latest updates here
Red Cross vehicles and buses in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Pic: AP
Tens of thousands of Israelis watched the transfers at public screenings across the country.
The families and friends of hostages broke out into cheers as Israeli TV channels announced the hostages were in the hands of the Red Cross.
Israel previously said that of the 251 initially taken captive in Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, 20 of the hostages that remained in Gaza were thought to be alive, 26 were presumed dead, and the fate of two was unknown.
The 20 hostages are all men aged between 20 and 48, who have spent more than two years in captivity.
As part of the first phase of US President Donald Trump‘s ceasefire agreement, Hamas was given 72 hours to release all the Israeli hostages, alive and dead.
The agreed ceasefire started at midday local time (10am UK time) on Friday, with tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians moving back towards northern Gaza, which was mostly destroyed by Israel.
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Who are the hostages to be freed?
Hamas has released a list of the 20 living hostages it will free. Tap on their pictures to read more about them:
Once all the hostages are released, Israel is expected to free 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and 1,700 Gazans detained after the 7 October attacks.
A second phase of the plan, which all sides have yet to agree on, could see Israeli troops further withdrawing from Gaza.
Trump says ‘war is over’
Mr Trump boarded Air Force One in Washington on Sunday to fly to Israel.
“The war is over,” he said. Asked about prospects for the region, he added: “I think it’s going to normalise.”
The US president will receive a hero’s welcome when he addresses Israel’s parliament on Monday. He will be awarded Israel’s highest civilian honour later this year, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
Israel invaded Gaza in retaliation, with airstrikes and ground assaults devastating much of the enclave, killing more than 67,000, according to its Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half of those killed were women and children.
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A teddy sits on a bed in a bright hospital room. Beside it is a small fridge stocked with bottled water and Coca-Cola.
While the bear might make you think a child is about to arrive, this room will soon be welcoming one of the 20 Israeli hostages believed to be alive in Gaza.
With phase one of Donald Trump’s peace plan now under way, an entire nation is holding its breath for the return of the hostages, not least the medical teams preparing to receive them.
Gaza latest: Israel prepares for hostages’ release
Sky News was given special access to one of the teams in the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva, a city north-east of Tel Aviv.
It was sobering and emotional, but also inspiring, talking to its doctors and nurses as they showed us around what one calls the “homecoming unit”.
A welcome sign and Israeli flag greet the returning hostages
Director of Nursing Dr Michal Steinman took us into the light airy rooms where hostages will be allowed to recover at their own speed in private, choosing when and for how long they emerge, slowly reengaging with a world they’ve not known for two years.
She explained that each of the hostages – who are all men – will be given their own private room, where a gift basket filled with thoughtful items such as a teddy, a blanket, slippers and a phone charger awaits them.
The teddy is there to help bring comfort to the freed captives.
“Our research says each one of us has a child inside,” Dr Steinman told me. “We need something to pet and feel soft, and reassure them after the lack of senses for such a long time.”
Phones, she said, will be provided by the army.
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The bear is one of many small touches added to bring the hostages comfort in the coming days
The families will also bring items from home to make the area feel more familiar to their loved ones as they slowly adjust to freedom.
The men will also have access to other areas, including a private living space where they can spend time with loved ones or greet any visiting dignitaries. Their families will also be provided with rooms to stay in, as well as an area for the children of the hostages when they visit.
Medical equipment is kept in dedicated treatment rooms as part of an effort to make the rooms feel more like accommodation than a hospital.
One of the areas where family members can wait for their loved ones who have been in captivity to arrive
While the unit is pristine and ready for the new arrivals, it has previously been used to house other hostages released by Hamas.
Staff shared anecdotes revealing what may lie ahead. Dr Steinman told us of one released hostage who had had trouble not with sleeping, but with waking up.
“When I opened my eyes,” they had told her, “I was thinking that I’m still in a dream because there’s no way that I opened my eyes and I’m not in the tunnel. I thought, ‘it’s a dream inside a dream’.”
The hostages, she said, “can’t believe for the first moments they’re not in other place.”
A living space for the men and their families to relax in
Dr Steinman found another freed captive “stuck” and standing still after opening the refrigerator.
“I told him, ‘It’s hard for you to choose?’,” she explained. “And he said, ‘I’m just amazed at the colours. All I’ve seen for 100 days is black, white and brown’.”
The professor reinventing ‘hostage medicine’
For the head of the centre, Professor Noa Eliakim-Raz, and her team, the return of the hostages will be the culmination of two years of painstaking work.
They have effectively reinvented what they call ‘hostage medicine’, learning from the treatment of groups of hostages received during this war.
Professor Noa Eliakim-Raz tells me she has been ready for this moment for a long time
She is a serious and dedicated clinician. With professional precision, she told me of the challenges ahead, including the life-threatening risks of mistreating malnourished hostages held for so long underground.
Then she gave us a glimpse into the human side of their work.
“All the team, we’ve prepared for so long, I mean really, we’ve been in this for two years and all the time, we’re preparing and ready,” she said. “This ward that you saw is ready every day.”
How does she feel as the hostages’ arrival draws near?
“I feel very grateful, and I think that’s the strongest emotion, to be part of this,” she said.
Clearly moved, Professor Noa had to pause and collect her emotions, her eyes welling up when asked what she’d be thankful for most.
“I think being part of a small step,” she began, before pausing again. “A small step of making them feel hugged again and trusting the system.”
It will, she said, be a big relief when it’s over.
Professor Noa is writing a first-of-its-kind multi-disciplinary protocol for treating long-term hostages, literally rewriting the book on how to return them to normality.
Her department did not exist before October 7. In the two years since its inception, it has pioneered a form of treatment involving many different disciplines to maximise the chances of recovery.
The Rabin Medical Center’s staff believe the lessons they’ve learned will benefit doctors around the world in future.
But they hope never to have to use them on Israelis again.
Drones have been a common sight in Gaza for a long time, but they have always been military.
The whine of a drone is enough to trigger fear in many within the enclave.
But now, drones are delivering something different – long, lingering footage of the devastation that has been wreaked on Gaza. And the images are quite staggering.
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Whole city blocks reduced to rubble. Streets destroyed. Towns where the landscape has been wholly redesigned.
Whole city blocks reduced to rubble
Decapitated tower blocks and whole areas turned into black and white photographs, where there is no colour but only a palette of greys – from the dark hues of scorched walls to the lightest grey of the dust that floats through the air.
And everywhere, the indistinct dull grey of rubble – the debris of things that are no longer there.
Gaza is full of people returning to their homes
The joy that met the ceasefire has now changed into degrees of anxiety and shock.
Gaza is full of people who are returning to their homes and hoping for good news. For a lucky few, fortune is kind, but for most, the news is bad.
Umm Firas has been displaced from her home in Khan Younis for the past five months. She returned today to the district she knew so well. And what she found was nothing.
Umm Firas returned to find nothing
“This morning we returned to our land, to see our homes, the neighbourhoods where we once lived,” she says.
“But we found no trace of any houses, no streets, no neighbourhoods, no trees. Even the crops, even the trees – all of them had been bulldozed. The entire area has been destroyed.
“There used to be more than 1,750 houses in the block where we lived, but now not a single one remains standing. Every neighbourhood is destroyed, every home is destroyed, every school is destroyed, every tree is destroyed. The area is unliveable.
“There’s no infrastructure, no place where we can even set up a tent to sit in. Our area, in downtown Khan Younis used to be densely populated. Our homes were built right next to each other. Now there is literally nowhere to go.
“Where can we go? We can’t even find an empty spot to pitch our tent over the ruins of our own homes. So we are going to have to stay homeless and displaced.”
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It is a story that comes up again and again. One man says that he cannot even reach his house because it is still too near the Israeli military officers stationed in the area.
Another, an older man whose bright pink glasses obscure weary eyes, says there is “nothing left” of his home “so we are leaving it to God”.
“I’m glad we survived and are in good health,” he says, “and now we can return there even if it means we need to eat sand!”
A man says there is ‘nothing left’
A bulldozer moves rubble
The bulldozers have already started work across the strip, trying to clear roads and allow access. Debris is being piled into huge piles, but this is a tiny sticking plaster on a huge wound.
The more you see of Gaza, the more impossible the task seems of rebuilding this place. The devastation is so utterly overwhelming.
Bodies are being found in the rubble while towns are full of buildings that have been so badly damaged they will have to be pulled down.
Humanitarian aid is needed urgently, but, for the moment, the entry points remain closed. Charities are pleading for access.
It is, of course, better for people to live without war than with it. Peace in Gaza gifts the ability to sleep a little better and worry a little less. But when people do wake up, what they see is an apocalyptic landscape of catastrophic destruction.
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