NP's Nic Pyatt on Sudan for ABC
Patrick Reevell (ABC News)
Humanitarian organizations are raising the alarm about what is happening in Sudan. Last weekend, fighters with the Rapid Support Forces, or the RSF, a paramilitary group at war with Sudan's army, seized the city of El Fasher in Darfur after a year and a half siege. Since then, RSF fighters appear to have committed mass killings. They've often been filming themselves. This video shows bodies strewn around a university.
Nic Pyatt (Nonviolent Peaceforce)
We hear people, they've been telling us about how they've been tripping over dead bodies as they've been trying to escape the city, how they have been shelled and shot at as they've been trying to flee.
Patrick Reevell (ABC News)
Now, researchers from the Yale Humanitarian Lab say these satellite images shows signs of systematic mass killing by the RSF. They point to the appearance of clusters of objects that are the size of human bodies that were not visible in prior images. Now, they say those are piles of bodies. The Yale researchers also say they can see areas of the ground stained with blood. El-Fasher was the last city in Darfur not under the control of the RSF. Many experts say they fear they are seeing the completion of the Darfur genocide from two decades ago against the non-Arab population of the region.
Nathaniel Raymond (Yale Humanitarian Lab)
We're watching the genocide. This is the final battle of the Darfur genocide that began 20 years ago.
Patrick Reevell (ABC News)
Thousands of civilians have been trying to flee to the nearby town of Tawila.
"Sumood" (Nonviolent Peaceforce)
Three days ago we received a big influx of displaced people from el-Fasher to here in Tawila. Some survivors say that most of the people in el-Fasher have been killed or injured as a result of attacks. Even my father has been missing for three days. Until now, I don't know his whereabouts or where he might be.
Nic Pyatt (Nonviolent Peaceforce)
The conditions under which people have had to escape, the conditions under which they are trying to survive, if they get to safety is, I would personally say, probably some of the worst that we have seen anywhere. The town of Tawila, where the Nonviolent Peaceforce team is and is trying to respond, is already hosting more than 600,000 displaced people as a result of this conflict.