00:00A city that has now become ruins, a country fighting with itself and a massacre happening in front of the world's eyes, but no one is able to do anything?
00:09This is the story of Al-Fashir, that city in Western Sudan where every sign of life is slowly being erased.
00:16Amidst 18 months of siege, hunger, bullets and blood-stained streets, the question now arises, will Sudan be able to save itself or will it once again become the most horrific chapter in history?
00:28Let's find out what happened in Al-Fashir and why the situation in Sudan is so dire.
00:33Hello, I am Asif Iqbal and you are watching One India.
00:43In the city of Al-Fashir in Western Sudan, which is the capital of North Darfur, thousands of people are feared dead.
00:50This massacre began when the Paramilitary Force Rapid Support Forces or RSF took control of the city.
00:57After an 18-month siege, Al-Fashir fell into the hands of the RSF on Sunday, which had halted the supply of food and medicine for the millions trapped there.
01:07According to the United Nations,
01:098 Chaksa, Sudan has been burning in the fire of civil war for the past two and a half years, in which more than 40,000 people have died and 12 million people have been displaced.
01:18Let's find out what happened in Al-Fashir and why the situation in Sudan is so dire.
01:22On Sunday, the RSF took control of Al-Fashir.
01:26This was the last thronghold of the Sudanese army in the Darfur region.
01:29So according to the Sudanese army, by Wednesday, about 2,000 people had been killed, while the Sudan doctors' network has confirmed at least 1,500 people.
01:37About 1,200,000 people had been trapped in the city for 18 months.
01:42They had to survive by eating animal fodder.
01:44The RSF had set up a 56-kilometer-long wall and barricades around the city, completely blocking food, medicine, and exit routes.
01:54In videos going viral on social media, RSF fighters are seen shooting and torturing people.
02:01RSF members have previously recorded and shared videos of massacres.
02:06The United Nations Human Rights Office has stated that people fleeing RSF attacks were shot on the spot, and signs of ethnic hatred are clearly visible in their killings.
02:16Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab has confirmed through satellite images that red bloodstains on the ground and piles of bodies are evidence of a massacre, which were not present in images before the RSF took control.
02:29According to the United Nations, in just two days, more than 26,000 people have fled Al-Fashir, mostly on foot.
02:35About 177,000 civilians are still trapped in the city.
02:39Reports of atrocities are also coming from the Bara area of the neighboring state of North Cordofan, which the RSF claimed to have taken control of on October 25th.
02:48There have been attacks on human rights activists and civilians there.
02:53The Red Cross and Red Christian Society have confirmed that five of their workers were killed in Bara and three are missing.
02:58Now, let us tell you why Al-Fashir and Al-Obed are important.
03:02These two cities are important strategic centers in Western Sudan.
03:06Al-Fashir, which is the capital of North Darfur, was the last city in the Darfur region that was outside RSF control.
03:12Now, with its fall, the country is divided into two parts.
03:15Eastern Sudan is under SAF control, and Western Sudan has gone under RSF control.
03:20RSF has announced a parallel government in Darfur.
03:23While the Sudanese army is now only in the eastern and northern regions, Al-Obed, which is the capital of North Cordofan and an oil production area, is strategically important for RSF because it is the link between Khartoum and Darfur.
03:37RSF is now trying to encircle Al-Obed.
03:39The head of the Sudanese army, General Abdel-Fatah Al-Burhan, has stated that his army has left Al-Fashir to protect civilians from RSF violence.
03:48He has warned that they will surely avenge the blood of their people.
03:52Meanwhile, RSF leader Mohammed Hamdan Hemeti Dagalo has said that they want to unite Sudan under a true democracy and that criminals will be punished.
04:00Let's talk about who the RSF is.
04:02The roots of the RSF are in the notorious tribal armed group called Janjaweed, which was supported by dictator Omar al-Bashir during the Darfur war in 2003.
04:11These tribal militias are accused of killing 100,000 to 300,000 people and displacing 2.5 million people, which many human rights organizations have called genocide.
04:21In 2013, Bashir formally organized the tribal groups as the Rapid Support Forces.
04:26In 2019, the RSF played a role in toppling Bashir's regime, but later in 2021, they joined forces with the SAF to overthrow the civilian government.
04:35The story of the civil war starting in Sudan is dangerous.
04:38In 2023, tensions between the RSF and SAF reached a peak when a dispute arose over when and how the RSF would be integrated into the army and who would take control of the country.
04:47On April 15, 2023, the war broke out.
04:50Both sides have been accused of war crimes and human rights violations.
04:53In January 2024, the United States Department of State announced that the RSF and its allies are committing genocide in Darfur.
04:59Thousands of innocent civilians have lost their lives in the conflict between these two.
05:04Local groups have warned that the RSF's capture of al-Fashir will prove disastrous for non-Arab tribes.
05:11People have reported that RSF soldiers are going house to house, committing killings based on ethnic identity.
05:16Approximately 500 people were killed in the city's Saudi hospital, where patients and refugees were hiding.
05:21Several incidents of sexual violence against women have also been reported.
05:26With the capture of al-Fashir, the RSF now has control over the entire Darfur region.
05:29This area is rich in gold mines and borders, Chad, Libya, Sasso, Papu Shaka, Upfadash Chaka, Dirgeat and South Sudan.
05:36It is not that peace talks have not taken place in Sudan.
05:39Several rounds of peace talks mediated by Saudi Arabia, the United States and the African Union have been inconclusive.
05:44In September 2024, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE, referred to as the Quad,
05:50presented a plan for a three-month humanitarian ceasefire and the restoration of civilian rule in nine months.
05:55Sudanese army chief Al-Burhan initially rejected it, but later showed a softer stance after meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
06:01However, after RSF's capture of al-Fashir,
06:04this plan is now in limbo.
06:08The destruction of al-Fashir is not just the fall of a city, but has become one of the darkest events in Sudan's humanitarian history.
06:14Ethnic genocide, hunger, violence and displacement have seemingly split Sudan into two parts.
06:19If the international community does not intervene soon, Darfur could once again witness devastation like in 2003.
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