When Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stormed the besieged city of el-Fasher on October 26, Mabrooka’s husband and brother ran for their lives.The plan was for them to head to Tawila – about 60 kilometres (37 miles) away – where Mabrooka would be waiting for them with her three small children. By sundown, they had still not arrived.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listNews spread that the RSF, which has been fighting a bitter war against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since April 2023, was carrying out summary executions against the population of el-Fasher, which it accused of siding with its enemy. Mabrooka began fearing the worst.Then, her phone rang.A voice told Mabrooka to wire 14,000 Sudanese pounds ($23) – a hefty sum for displaced and destitute Sudanese families – to a bank account, which she suspected belonged to an RSF fighter.“When I got the call, I was terrified and crying the whole time,” Mabrooka, 27, told Al Jazeera. “I knew they would for sure torture and kill them if I didn’t muster up the money.”Kidnapping and ransomSince the RSF captured the army’s last stronghold in the sprawling western region of Darfur, the group has carried out a series of atrocities, including execution, rape and mass looting, according to survivors and local monitors. The Sudan Doctors Network put the death toll from the RSF attack at 1,500 in the first few days after the city’s fall, but the true number could be far higher …
