People fleeing to Chad have reported a new surge in deadly clashes in Sudan's West Darfur as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took over the main army base in the state capital, El Geneina.
Medical charity MSF said the number of refugees arriving in Chad had sharply increased in the first three days of November to 7,000. The refugees were mainly women and children, and many recounted stories of large-scale violence against civilians, it said.
UN officials in Chad said thousands more were expected to cross but had been prevented from doing so by RSF forces demanding money.
On Tuesday, a Reuters reporter saw a trail of men crossing from Darfur into Chad at Adre, about 27 km (17 miles) west of El Geneina.
Witnessed killings
Three of those who fled said they had witnessed killings by militias and RSF forces allegedly targeting the Masalit ethnic group in Ardamata, an outlying district in El Geneina that is home to the army base and to a camp for internally displaced people (IDP).
The RSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters was not able to independently verify the accounts of what took place.
Reuters has reported that between April and June this year, the RSF and allied militias conducted weeks of systematic attacks targeting the Masalit as war flared in the country between the RSF and Sudan's army.
In public comments, tribal leaders have denied engaging in ethnic cleansing in El Geneina, and the RSF has said it was not involved in what it described as a tribal conflict.
Ceasefire talks fail
At talks in Jeddah, the warring parties agreed to facilitating aid deliveries and confidence-building measures, mediators said on Tuesday, but efforts to secure a ceasefire have so far failed.
The attack on the army base in Ardamata started early last week, when militiamen also started shelling homes in the IDP camp, said Nabil Meccia, a nurse who said he had crossed into Chad after being detained by the RSF at the border and paying to secure his release.
He said he had seen RSF forces killing civilians as they sprayed gunfire during raids in the Ardamata camp, and lining men up and executing them. Like others, Meccia had moved to Ardamata, where residents hoped for protection by the army, after the attacks elsewhere in El Geneina this year.
An army soldier who declined to be named, who fled the Ardamata base, said a drone attack early on Friday had destroyed its defences and that military commanders had left by Saturday morning.
Dozens executed
As army troops pulled out of their base, community leaders in Ardamata collected weapons to try to secure safe passage for civilians, said Meccia and Sharaf Eddin Adam, another civilian refugee who arrived in Chad.
Residents with access to vehicles managed to escape, but others were arrested or forced to labour by the RSF before several dozen were lined up and executed in Ardamata's Kobri district just after midday on Sunday, Adam said.
He said he saw dozens of bodies of civilians lying lifeless in the street and that people were also beaten and flogged.
The war in Sudan has caused a major humanitarian crisis and the displacement of more than six million people, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). More than 500,000 people have crossed into Chad, mostly from West Darfur, the IOM says.
