'We saw so many bodies that we lost count': uncovering the hidden horror of El Fasher

Using eyewitness reports, satellite images and social media videos, Isabel Coles and Fred Harter record the carnage when RSF fighters seized the famine-stricken capital of Sudan's North Darfur

- Isabel Coles and Fred Harter

Nur calls 26 October "Judgment Day". It is the day the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) finally captured El Fasher, the famine-stricken capital of Sudan's North Darfur region, after a gruelling siege that lasted more than 500 days.

The preceding 24 hours had seen a sharp influx of wounded to the Saudi maternity hospital, the city's last functioning health facility, where Nur worked. Among the injured were pregnant women whose bellies had been torn open by shrapnel. Medical supplies had run so low that ripped mosquito nets were used as gauze.

"A soldier came and said the RSF were at the gate and approaching us, so we left," said Nur, which is not her real name. The Observer is protecting her identity as she fears for her family.

She emerged from the ward into a city seized by violence. "There were many bodies everywhere, and looting was taking place in the streets. Some people were riding camels and carrying stolen items like TVs," said Nur, adding that she saw "people killing women, pointing guns at civilians, executing people, bodies torn apart by explosions".

Nur is not certain what happened after she left the hospital, but she heard from colleagues who stayed and hid that the paramilitaries had "executed some people". According to the World Health Organization, more than 460 patients and their companions were reportedly shot there on 28 October, two days after Nur had left.

Four weeks after its fall, the number of people killed in El Fasher and the surrounding desert is not known. Of the 180,000 people in the city when the RSF overran it, about 100,000 remain, according to the International Organization for Migration. Tens of thousands who fled are unaccounted for.