Sudanese paramilitary fighters have killed at least 14 civilians as they tried to escape the besieged city of El-Fasher in Darfur, a rights group said Monday, marking another grim chapter in Sudan’s ongoing war.

The Emergency Lawyers group, which tracks human rights abuses in the conflict, reported that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) opened fire on civilians attempting to flee on Saturday. Dozens more were reportedly injured, and an unknown number detained during the attack on the outskirts of the North Darfur state capital.

The RSF, which has surrounded El-Fasher since May 2024, has made repeated attempts to seize control of the city but has so far been held off by the regular army.

Just days before the violence, RSF-backed Darfur governor Al-Hadi Idris urged residents to leave the city and head to Qarni village. “Our forces and the Tasis alliance forces are located [there] and will ensure your safety,” he said in a video message on Thursday. But according to the Emergency Lawyers, that promised safety turned into a deadly ambush.

The Tasis alliance, led by the RSF, recently declared a parallel government based in Nyala, capital of South Darfur state.

Meanwhile, the UN continues to raise alarms over the humanitarian crisis unfolding in El-Fasher, where hundreds of thousands of civilians remain trapped. Aid has been nearly nonexistent, and families are reportedly surviving on animal feed—now also in short supply.

The war between the Sudanese army and the RSF began in April 2023 and has since killed tens of thousands, displaced more than 14 million people, and plunged the country into what the UN describes as the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.

If the RSF takes El-Fasher, it will cement its control over all of Darfur and expand its grip across much of southern Sudan.