TINE, Chad — The road from El-Fasher to Chad is lined with ghosts. For 16-year-old Mounir Abderahmane, the journey took 11 days across the scorched plains of Darfur, fleeing a city drowning in blood and smoke, according to Arab News.
When the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stormed El-Fasher in late October, Abderahmane was tending to his wounded father, a Sudanese soldier, inside the Saudi Hospital. Then came the gunfire. “They summoned seven nurses into a room,” he said, his voice faltering. “We heard shots and saw blood leaking from under the door.” He fled that day. His father died on the road to Chad.
The RSF, a powerful paramilitary faction with roots in the Janjaweed militias accused of atrocities two decades ago, captured El-Fasher; the army’s last stronghold in Darfur; after an 18 month siege. Both sides have been accused of war crimes, but witnesses say the city’s final days were defined by drone strikes, executions, and extortion.
At the Tine refugee transit camp, more than 300 kilometers west, survivors recounted scenes of horror. “Every time I went outside, I saw new corpses in the streets,” said Hamid Souleymane Chogar, 53, who escaped on a cart through the debris. “We moved without lights or words.”
Families hid in ruins as drones bombarded neighborhoods. Mahamat Ahmat Abdelkerim, whose child was killed days earlier, took shelter in a house filled with civilian corpses. “The blood was still oozing,” he said. Others, like Mouna Mahamat Oumour, walked past the torn bodies of loved ones. “We covered them and kept moving. We never looked back.”
Refugees described crossing RSF checkpoints where fighters demanded up to $1,600 in cash for safe passage. Those without money faced assault or worse.
The United Nations estimates that nearly 90,000 people have fled El-Fasher in just two weeks, many walking for days without food or water. Aid groups warn of starvation and disease in overcrowded camps.
Sudan’s civil war—fueled by greed for gold and power has already killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million. In Tine, the survivors wait in silence, haunted by memories of a city that no longer exists.
