TAWILA/AL DABBA, Sudan – The seizure of El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, by the Rapid Support Forces, following more than 530 days of siege, shelling and bombardment, has unleashed a new wave of brutal violence, triggering a mass exodus and trapping families in a desperate situation. Reports of widespread sexual violence and harrowing executions continue to mount.
Close to 71,000 people fled the city in a single week, joining the hundreds of thousands already displaced across the region. For women and girls, their journey to places like Tawila and Al Dabba is not a passage to safety, but a perilous ordeal marked by extortion, rape and death.
The scars of escape
Survivors who reached Tawila recounted experiences of harrowing violence and loss to UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.
“They killed my husband in front of me,” stated Asmaa*, 26. “He could only afford to pay the ransom for me and our children. Then they killed him.”
Women and girls also face the immediate and pervasive threat of sexual violence.
Salam*, 19, shared a distressing account of her assault during her escape: “They asked if I was a virgin. When I said yes, they took me to their office and raped me before allowing me to continue walking.”
Salam later received clinical management of rape services from UNFPA partners in Tawila.
Survival as a daily struggle
For those arriving in Al Dabba and Tawila, momentary relief quickly fades, giving way to the harsh reality of a continuous fight for survival. Tawila, a once small rural outpost, 50 km west of El Fasher, was already sheltering over 652,000 people, displaced by previous attacks.
The current influx has pushed the limited infrastructure past the breaking point. Makeshift tents, if available, offer minimal protection from the rainy season.
Many families sleep in the open, heightening women and girls’ risks of violence, exploitation and abuse. Insufficient communal latrines, and the absence of privacy, also compel women and girls to seek secluded areas at night, compounding protection risks.
In Al Dabba, hunger and disease – including a cholera outbreak across the country – add a lethal layer to this crisis. Overcrowded conditions in the camps create a perfect storm for preventable illnesses to spread, threatening the lives of the most vulnerable, especially pregnant women and children.
Survivors often describe feeling despair.
Manasik*, 18, who arrived in Al Dabba after a gruelling 12-day journey. She lost her father and three-year-old sister to a mortar attack in El Fasher. “For nine days, we didn't eat or drink anything. Here, even toilets cost money… Sometimes I wonder whether we should have stayed under the mortars and shooting. Maybe I should never have left.”
Averting further suffering: An urgent call
The crisis has also stripped mothers and their newborns of essential care.
Farha*, 26, who is nine months pregnant, walked for seven days through the desert to reach Al Dabba after her husband, father and brothers were killed in El Fasher. She now lives by a market wall with her children. She has received cash and voucher assistance from UNFPA to ensure she can access the maternal and newborn health care she will need when the time comes to give birth.
UNFPA teams are working to continue providing essential services, including operating a 24-hour basic emergency obstetric and newborn care facility in Tawila, and running five women and girls’ safe spaces in Tawila and Al Dabba to provide holistic support for survivors of gender-based violence.
Midwives, social workers, case managers and psychosocial support staff have been deployed to deliver maternal health, protection and mental health services. Reproductive health medicines, including for emergency obstetric care and the clinical management of rape, have been provided to Al Dabba Maternity Hospital, with more supplies and hygiene items prepositioned in South Darfur.
Yet the scale of the crisis demands much more. An immediate, unified response is essential – including rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access so that life-saving aid can be delivered. The international community must also urgently increase financial support to avert a massive, preventable loss of life.
*Names changed for safety and protection
