A young man from one of the towns outlying the western Sudanese city of El-Fasher, Hussein was one of hundreds of men and boys captured and held by paramilitary forces that have overrun the area.

“We were rounded up and taken,” he said on Sunday, explaining how he and roughly 200 other young men were detained for days by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters in Garni, 25 kilometres northwest of El-Fasher, after they tried to flee.

“They hit us with sticks and called us ‘slaves’,” said Hussein, who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of reprisal.

The RSF, at war with Sudan’s army since April 2023, seized the strategic city of El-Fasher one week ago, pushing the military out of its last stronghold in the region after an 18-month siege marked by starvation and bombardment.

Since the takeover, reports have emerged of executions, sexual violence, looting, attacks on aid workers and abductions in and around El-Fasher, where communications remain largely cut off.

Hussein said that as well as being beaten and insulted, he and his fellow detainees were given only one meal a day.