Why are thousands of people fleeing Darfur?

“Those who are not killed are hiding”.

Thousands of new refugees have crossed into Chad from Darfur in recent weeks - all describing scenes of horror as the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, establish their dominance across the region in western Sudan.

The RSF was created from the feared Janjaweed militia which destroyed villages and killed or displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur in 2003 and 2004. Its leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo - widely known as Hemedti - used to be a Janjaweed commander.

Now the RSF is expected to take the capital city of north Darfur - Al Fashar - previously a safe haven for the non-Arab population. Around 50 thousand internally displaced people had already sought shelter there earlier in the war, prompting fears of an even greater humanitarian disaster.

For today’s Africa Daily, Alan Kasujja gets the latest on the situation from Suliman Baldo of the Sudan Crisis Research Network as well as from Seif Nemir who managed to get his family out of the embattled city of El Geneina in June.