"Fired upon as they were trying to flee" - NP's Mary Brace for BBC World Service

Original Source: BBC World Service Newsday (31 Oct 2025, 05:06 GMT, starting at 27:09)

James Copnall: We will start in Sudan and the condemnation of the United Nation's Security Council of the paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces' assault on the city of El Fasher. Security Council members called for accountability for reported RSF atrocities, including summary executions and arbitrary detentions. Details of what are happening inside El Fasher are still emerging. A few thousand of the estimated quarter of a million people living there have been able to escape and make their way to the nearby town of Tawila. One of them, Hassan Moussa told the BBC about his experiences:

"We were divided into groups and beaten. The scenes were extremely brutal. We saw people executed in front of us. We saw people being beaten. It was really terrible. We went without food or water for three days while walking in the streets."

Well, let's head to Tawila now and speak to Mary Brace, who is with the Nonviolent Peaceforce, an organisation that works to protect civilians in violent conflicts. Welcome to Newsday. That account by Hassan Moussa, who came from El Fasher to Tawila, is that something that fits in with what you are hearing from other people?

Mary Brace: Yes, definitely, these are reports we have been hearing from many people as they are arriving. Being fired upon as they were trying to flee, accounts of separations that have been happening along the roads, and beatings and lootings that have been happening.

James Copnall: Is it clear who are carrying out these acts of violence? Is it the RSF, is it other militia groups along the way? Is that possible to tell?

Mary Brace: I mean, not entirely clear who is behind what. We know, obviously, who has taken over El Fasher now, but accounts we get on the routes is that there are many different groups. People will escape from one group only to run into another group and have their possessions once again looted and be beaten again.

James Copnall: What about people who have been arriving in Tawila telling you about their experiences within El Fasher? What are you hearing there?

Mary Brace: So the last weeks have been incredibly difficult, just ongoing shelling happening all the time. People absolutely terrified with what would be happening. There have been extremely, extremely limited food. We know people have been eating animal fodder in order to survive. And also boiling cowhides in order to eat. In just the immediate last week, we saw more people arriving. We know that in the actual fall of the city, people were fleeing toward the western side of the city, being fired upon and falling over bodies as they fled.

James Copnall: What can you tell me about the numbers of the people who are arriving in Tawila? Because estimates vary, but we've heard from 250,000 to 400,000 people perhaps in El Fasher. When we spoke to someone in Tawila yesterday, they said perhaps only 5,000 had arrived recently. So there's clearly huge numbers of people who want to leave El Fasher, how many are getting to Tawila?

Mary Brace: Those numbers are really difficult to estimate. Partly, people are arriving through various routes, so traveling under the cover of darkness to avoid various groups on the route, not traveling on the main road, so they are arriving into town via various routes. We've also heard accounts, unconfirmed for now, accounts of people being held, back closer to El Fasher. So, the numbers of who have arrived, yes they are not as many as we had predicted would be arriving. But we are monitoring the situation.

James Copnall: How confident are you that Tawila itself is a safe haven, that it will not become the next target for the RSF?

Mary Brace: So we have been following the security situation very closely, also with all of our partners and in collaboration with various authorities. For now, we are pretty assured—our response at the moment is on the immediate response for those who are arriving and also for those who are trying to facilitate safe corridors for people to arrive. So for now, we are operating under that assumption.

James Copnall: Mary Brace, thank you very much indeed, with the Nonviolent Peaceforce, an organisation working to protect civilians in violent conflicts. She was talking from the town of Tawila.