At least 14 civilians have been killed while attempting to flee El-Fasher, a city under siege in Sudan’s Darfur region, just days after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) urged residents to evacuate and promised safe passage, according to a rights group.

Emergency Lawyers, a group that has been documenting human rights violations throughout the conflict between the RSF and the Sudanese army, reported that the civilians were killed on Saturday in a village near El-Fasher.

The group said “dozens more were injured and an unknown number of civilians detained” during the incident.

“The victims had left El-Fasher in an attempt to escape the siege and escalating battles,” the group added.

The attack took place shortly after the RSF's administrative wing in Darfur had publicly asked residents to leave the city.

On Thursday, the RSF-appointed Darfur governor, Al-Hadi Idris, addressed civilians in a video message, saying: “I call on you to leave El-Fasher and head to Qarni, the northwest gate of the city, where our forces and the Tasis alliance forces are located and will ensure your safety.”

However, according to Emergency Lawyers, it was near Qarni that the civilians were ambushed and killed.

The RSF has been laying siege to El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, since May 2024 but has so far failed to take full control of the city from the army.

The latest assault on El-Fasher marks another escalation in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands since it began in April 2023.

Due to a communication blackout and restricted media access in Darfur, independent verification of the casualties remains difficult.

The United Nations has consistently raised concern for the approximately one million people trapped in and around El-Fasher, who are now facing extreme shortages of food, water, and medical aid.

Local officials recently warned of a looming crisis after stocks of animal feed, which families have been relying on for survival, began to run out.

The RSF’s push to capture El-Fasher is seen as critical, as it would give them control over the entire western Darfur region and large portions of southern Sudan, in alliance with their local partners.

The Tasis alliance, which is led by the RSF, last month announced the formation of a parallel government headquartered in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.

However, this administration has not been recognised internationally, and the African Union has urged member states “to not recognise the so-called ‘parallel government’”.

The RSF has been laying siege to El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, since May 2024 but has so far failed to t

Governor Idris had claimed that RSF-allied forces would offer secure routes to locations such as Tawila, asserting, “just as the forces have secured thousands of people who left El-Fasher in the past six months.”

But Tawila itself is overwhelmed, with the UN reporting a severe cholera outbreak there, affecting hundreds of thousands who had earlier escaped RSF attacks on displacement camps near El-Fasher in April.

Both the RSF and the Sudanese army have been repeatedly accused of war crimes throughout the 27-month-long war, including targeting civilians and shelling residential areas without distinction.

However, rights groups have singled out the RSF for particularly brutal actions in Darfur, including burning entire villages and camps, committing systematic sexual violence, and carrying out ethnically targeted killings that some have described as genocide.