The families forced to pay ransoms to free loved ones in Sudan’s el-Fasher
Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces fighters are abducting thousands of people for ransom as they flee the city of el-Fasher. 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. News 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.”