Sudan's army-aligned government accused paramilitaries on Wednesday of attacking civilians in mosques during their recent takeover of the western city of Al Fasher.
The capture of Al Fasher on Sunday after an 18-month siege marked by starvation and bombardment has increased the Rapid Support Forces' (RSF) control over Darfur.
Al Fasher was the last of Darfur's five state capitals to fall to the paramilitaries, led by General Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo, who have been at war with the regular army for more than two years.
"More than 2,000 civilians were killed during the militia's invasion of Al Fasher, targeting volunteers in mosques and the Red Crescent," Mona Nour Al-Daem, humanitarian aid officer for the army-aligned government, said on Wednesday at a press conference in Port Sudan.
Civilians targeted
Al Fasher had been the last holdout in Darfur of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan's forces, and its fall has left RSF in control of a vast region covering a third of Sudan, with fighting now concentrated in the Kordofan region.
Since the city was captured by the RSF, the group has again been accused of carrying out atrocities against civilians, with brutal videos circulating on social media.
The United Nations has warned of "ethnically motivated violations and atrocities" while the African Union condemned "escalating violence" and "alleged war crimes."
"Civilians being targeted based on their ethnicity underscore the brutality of the Rapid Support Force," the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in a statement Wednesday.
Thousands flee Al Fasher
Since Sunday, more than 33,000 people have fled Al Fasher for the town of Tawila, about 70 kilometres to the west, which has already welcomed more than 650,000 displaced people, the UN says.
Around 177,000 people remain in Al Fasher, which had a population of more than one million before the war, according to the latest figures from the world body.
Satellite-based communications with Al Fasher remain cut off – though not for the RSF, which controls the Starlink network there – as are access routes to the city despite calls for humanitarian corridors.
Sudan's long-running civil conflict has killed thousands of people, displaced millions and triggered the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis.
