RSF head vows to defeat Sudan army via 'peace or war'

The head of the Sudanese paramilitary group accused of massacring thousands of civilians in El-Fasher vowed on Wednesday to defeat the army through "peace or through war".

"The liberation of El-Fasher is an opportunity for Sudanese unity, and we say: Sudanese unity through peace or through war," Rapid Support Forces head Mohammad Hamdan Daglo said in a speech broadcast on his official Telegram channel, without specifying his location.

His declaration came three days after RSF forces captured the strategic western city, giving them control of the vast region of Darfur.

Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Daglo's rival and leader of the regular army, acknowledged on Monday that his troops had withdrawn.

The RSF has waged a brutal war against the Sudanese army since April 2023. Earlier this year it set up a parallel government in Nyala in southern Darfur.

Its forces have been accused of committing acts of genocide, mass killing, ethnic cleansing and sexual violence during the war.

Since capturing El-Fasher, the RSF has been accused of killing thousands of civilians in the city.

Videos of violence posted to social media, eyewitness testimony and satellite imagery have all stoked accusations of massacres in El-Fasher since RSF fighters took control.

The head of the World Health Organisation said Wednesday that hundreds had been killed in a hospital.

The European Union earlier accused the RSF of "brutality", saying there was evidence of "civilians being targeted because of their ethnicity".

"Investigators have arrived in El-Fasher, and we uphold the law and require accountability from anyone who has made a mistake," Daglo said, insisting that his forces were "peaceful people".

More than 36,000 people have fled the fighting since Sunday, most of them heading for the city's outskirts and for Tawila 70 kilometres (43 miles) to the west.

Over 650,000 displaced people were already sheltering in Tawila, according to the United Nations.

Daglo said that "we are sorry for the inhabitants of El-Fasher for the disaster that has befallen them" in the 18-month siege and final assault.

"But... the war was forced upon us," he added.

(AFP and TNA staff)