Sudan civil war: the terrifying escape from El Fasher

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau. Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

0:46I'm Alex Ritson and in the early hours of Monday 1st December, these are our main stories. Sudanese people who fled the besieged city of El Fasher give testimony on what they witnessed during one of the most brutal chapters of the civil war. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asks President Herzog for a formal pardon over his corruption cases. And the BBC investigates claims the Georgian authorities may have used chemical weapons against anti-government protesters. Also in this podcast. Blessed are the peacemakers. May you speak just one language, namely the language of hope, that by always starting afresh draws everyone together.

1:33The latest from the Pope's first overseas trip. And what's the word of the year? The fall of El Fasher just over a month ago was one of the most horrific events in Sudan's civil war. The city had been surrounded by the paramilitary rapid support forces for 18 months before they eventually broke through, expelling the Sudanese army from its last stronghold in the western region of Darfur. It was a huge victory for the RSF, but widespread accounts of brutality, killing and rape have drawn international condemnation. Our correspondent Barbara Platt-Asher has travelled to a camp in northern Sudan to hear firsthand the stories of those who escaped.

2:17The camp is located in army-controlled territory, and the BBC team was monitored at all times. And a warning, listeners may find parts of this report distressing. We're in the desert on the outskirts of the town of El Daba. Row after row of tents set up in the sand, and it's very hot. People try to squeeze into the bits of shade offered by the tents where they can. The children are running around and playing.

2:48Right at the edge of the camp is a place where the newest arrivals have gathered, waiting to be assigned tents, and we've been speaking to some of them about their experiences.

2:59Mohammed Abakar Ahmed Adam is sitting on the ground with his family. He was a local official in a camp for displaced people next to Al-Fashr, who fled to the city as the RSF advanced, then fled again when the paramilitaries captured it. The road here was full of death, he says. They shot some people directly in front of us. Then they carried them and threw them far away. And on the road, we saw dead bodies out in the open, unburied. Some had lain there for two or three days. RSF fighters also raped women, he said, corroborating widespread accounts of sexual violence. They would take a woman behind a tree or take her far from us, out of sight, so you wouldn't see with your own eyes.

3:47But you would hear her shout, help me, help me. And she would come and say, they raped me.

3:58There are mostly women here. Many don't want to be identified to protect those left behind.

4:07One 19-year-old woman told us the RSF took a girl from the group she was traveling with and they had to leave her behind. I was scared, she says. When they took her out of the car at the checkpoint, I was afraid that at every checkpoint they would take a girl. But they just took her, and that was it until we got here. She'd travelled with her younger sister and brother. Her mother was not an alfasher when it fell, so they escaped the city on foot with their grandmother. But she died before they reached the first stop, leaving them to carry on alone. My grandmother passed out and I thought it might be from lack of food or water, she says.

4:47I checked her pulse but she didn't wake up. So I found a doctor in a nearby village. He came and he said, your grandmother has given you her soul. I didn't know how I would tell my mother.

5:02It was the 15-year-old brother they were all worried about because the RSF suspected that fleeing men had fought with the army.

5:12They took the young men out of the cars and interrogated us for hours in the hot sun. They said we were soldiers. Some of the older ones probably were. The RSF fighters stood over us and circled around us, whipping us and threatening us with their guns. I lost hope and told them, whatever you want to do to me, do it. But finally, they let me go. He and his two sisters journeyed hundreds of miles through the desert to get here, a camp in army-held territory.

5:45We found Abdul Qadr wandering around the camp, a 62-year-old man trying to get his family registered for a tent. He was crippled during the long siege of Al-Fashr because he couldn't find medicine for his diabetes. But he was so panicked by the RSF, he didn't feel the pain as he ran.

6:07They were shooting at the people, the elderly, the civilians with live ammunition. They would empty their guns on them. Some of the RSF came with their cars. If they saw someone was still breathing, they drove over them. At the checkpoint when they separated the men from the women, boom, boom, boom, they shot them. They shot the men. The RSF told the BBC it's investigating individual violations, but it denies systematic abuse of civilians. Both sides are accused of war crimes.

6:43People in the camp have been broken again and again, but they are resilient. This particularly brutal chapter in Sudan's civil war has focused greater international attention on trying to end the conflict. But for those here, any hope they have is grounded in their faith.

7:05That report by Barbara Platt-Asher. Just weeks after Donald Trump asked Israel's president to pardon the Prime Minister in his ongoing corruption trial, Benjamin Netanyahu has made the same request. Mr Netanyahu, who denies wrongdoing, told President Herzog that his trial required him to testify three times a week, and this demand was making it difficult for him to govern and threatened Israel's security. James Cook reports from Jerusalem. For five years, Benjamin Netanyahu has battled charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. He's battled too for his political survival. Now, while maintaining his innocence, he wants a pardon, insisting the cases against him are tearing the nation apart.

7:52Israel, he said, faced great challenges and great opportunities, and in order to fend off the threats and seize the opportunities, national unity was required. The Prime Minister's stewardship of Israel before the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and his conduct of the war in Gaza since, have both been highly controversial. So too has this latest move. I think that if he would resign, I would be happy to grant him reconciliation. My son was killed on October 7, on the kibbutz, and I think that he should take responsibility for that. To ask for a pardon without admitting any guilt, without losing any position, without it affecting his life whatsoever, other than that he gets off scot-free, I certainly don't think that he should get it.

8:41I think basically it was a minor infraction and it really won't help the country except for people who hate Netanyahu. So I would hope Herzog will agree and then we can get done with all this. Mr President, why don't you give him a pardon? Benjamin Netanyahu does have at least one very powerful backer. The Israeli President's Office have described this formal request for a pardon from the Prime Minister as an extraordinary step with significant implications and have promised to consider it responsibly and sincerely. But Isaac Herzog is now under intense pressure from allies and opponents of Benjamin Netanyahu.

9:29That was clear outside the president's home tonight. The prime minister's opponents say a pardon would require an admission of guilt, an expression of remorse and his immediate retirement from political life. An unconditional reprieve for Benjamin Netanyahu, say his critics, could provoke a constitutional crisis.

9:52James Cook. The last few weeks have seen a lot of shuttle diplomacy as the Trump administration tries to build international support for its latest plan to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. Later today, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, will be in Paris to discuss the proposals with his French counterpart. And in the next few days, the US envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Russia. The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, described Sunday's talks with Ukrainian officials in Florida as productive, but said there's more work to be done. In a moment, we'll get reaction from Kiev.

10:29But first, our correspondent in Washington, Sean Dilley, told us more about Mr Rubio's comments and the tone he struck. Upbeat but also managing expectations. He said it was complex and had many moving parts as well as being quite delicate, of course, because of some of the issues that are still to be decided. But certainly saying it was very productive. It had an awful lot to say about wanting to end the bloodshed, America wanting to find a solution. But it wasn't just about ending the war. Let's take a listen to what Marco Rubio said. We don't just want to end the war. we also want to help Ukraine be safe forever, so never again will they face another invasion.

11:06And equally importantly, we want them to enter an age of true prosperity. We want the Ukrainian people to emerge from this war, not just to rebuild their country, but to build it back in a way that will be stronger and more prosperous than it's ever been. President Trump was speaking to a gaggle of reporters as he was boarding Air Force One on his way from Florida to the White House. He said that the talks were going and they were going well. He confirmed that his special envoy Steve Wyckoff would be on his way to Moscow because as Marco Rubio had acknowledged Russia weren't in the room during these talks they would ultimately have to agree but some of those matters still to be determined are going to be quite complex the issues of land in Ukraine the issues of downsizing and limiting the size of the military but it does look like it's at least moving in the right direction and now it's over to US negotiators on Moscow to see what they can agree on what they can't.

11:56Well, the US plan had initially been seen as favouring Russia. So what does Ukraine make of the current position? Kyiv's new peace talks negotiator Rustem Umarov sounded positive after the meeting. Our objective is a prosperous, strong Ukraine. We were discussing about the future of Ukraine. We discussed all the matters that are important for Ukraine, for Ukrainian people, and the US was super supportive. The details of the White House proposals are still unclear, but our Kiev correspondent, James Waterhouse, says the US has told Ukraine it faces stark choices. They're basically saying to Kiev, you need to face the battlefield reality.

12:38There's also a military reality. We're giving you the weapons that we can spare, but Europe can't make them quick enough to face the superior size of Russia. Now, President Zelensky is bruised. There is no doubt about that. He's lost his chief of staff from a corruption scandal that won't go away. And interestingly, one man widely tipped to succeed him as president, Valeriy Zeluzny, who is a former head of the armed forces. He's the ambassador to the UK. He's written in the Telegraph newspaper where he has talked about any peace deal needing to address the politics of Russia's invasion, being the capitulation of Ukraine.

13:19In the absence of that, he argues, as many Ukrainians do, the need for security guarantees. He said, you know, the NATO membership or even stationing nuclear missiles inside Ukraine, that is already being ruled out by senior US politicians. It's very hard to see Russia going for that as well. You know, it's already said it's a red line. Nevertheless, that is the rub, and it is a chasm of disagreement. as to how this peace deal could be reached. President Zelensky will travel to Paris. He's expected to head to Ireland after that and will keep a lookout for any dramatic changes in his diary. James Waterhouse.

13:58Sri Lanka has appealed for international help as it struggles to tackle some of the worst flooding in its recent history. More than 330 people are known to have been killed in the aftermath of Cyclone Dirtwa. A massive search and rescue operation is underway to find those who are still missing. There's also been devastating flooding across much of Southeast Asia. Our global affairs reporter Anbarasan Ette Rajan gave me this update. Several teams have been deployed across Sri Lanka. They are now clearing many roads that were blocked by landslides and fallen trees. Many bridges were damaged. So they were able to build these temporary networks and bridges to reach remote areas.

14:39So now they are understanding the full scale, the impact of the cyclone as well as the torrential rain that triggered massive floods. So that's why there was a sharp increase in the number of those killed. And they are still looking for more than 350 people they are yet to be accounted for. The immediate priority now is for rehabilitation and reconstruction. There are many areas in central part of Sri Lanka still cut off. That's why they were airdropping supplies and also in the northern part of Sri Lanka. The government is now trying to organize aid work and relief work and try to help people to go back to their homes because they were all damaged or full of mud, water.

15:23And at the same time, assist the damage for the communities and for businesses. So that is going to be a big challenge. Even this relief work itself is a big challenge because one of the helicopters that was carrying food for an elderly patient's home crash-landed in a river and the pilot died, unfortunately. So there are dangers even when you do this relief work. So that is a big challenge now for Sri Lanka to assess the situation on the ground. Cyclone Ditwa was just one of three cyclones that hit Asia and Southeast Asia simultaneously. Brief update, if you can, on the other two. Dittwa moved across the Park Strait towards the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

16:08Then it weakened into a deep depression. That means more rains, especially in the southern part of India. And it is still moving along. And not only in Sri Lanka, you also have Indonesia updating the number of those killed and also hundreds missing. Sumatra Island was one of the worst affected. Thailand is still recovering. There have been like number of storms. It's not only one. This is a season. But what many climate experts would point out that over a period of time, you'll have rain. Now, the intensity has increased, like, for example, a week's worth of rain falling just in half an hour. Second thing is there is no place for the water to run into the sea or run into the river.

16:49So they're getting blocked and the rivers are not desilted for a long time. So these are some of the factors which are contributing to the sudden rise of water level and also displacing communities where the water is stuck everywhere. Anbarasan et Arajan. Dignitas, the Right to Die organisation in Switzerland, has said that its founder, Ludwig Minelli, has himself died through assisted suicide at the age of 92. Dignitas has helped thousands of people, many from countries where assisted dying is not allowed. Mr Minelli was criticised for offering the service to those who were not terminally ill, but, as Emma Jane Kirby reports, he believed everyone has the right to a dignified death.

17:32Ludwig Minnelli saw suicide as a marvellous possibility, and throughout his adult life was a crusader for what he believed was the last human right, the right of each individual to control when their life should end. As a 14-year-old boy, he was deeply marked by witnessing his grandmother suffering a lingering and painful death. He became a human rights lawyer, advising euthanasia groups, before setting up his own assisted suicide organisation, Dignitas, in 1998, the only group in the world which helped foreigners to kill themselves. His critics accused him of recklessness, promoting suicide tourism and making a profit from death.

18:12But Ludwig Minnelli insisted he was a simple humanitarian who wanted to help those for whom life had become unbearable to die with dignity. Emma Jane Kirby. Still to come. Torture is something that is incredibly destructive to the body, but also to the mind. It is not something that you can really understand what it is until you go through it. We hear from a researcher who was held captive by militants in Iraq.

18:47If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

19:25A BBC investigation has found evidence that the authorities in the country of Georgia may have used a World War I-era chemical weapon against anti-government protesters last year. More than 100 people suffered long-term effects, including skin irritation, after being hit by chemicals in tear gas and water cannon. James Kumarasamy reports. In November 2024, thousands of demonstrators poured onto the streets of Georgia's capital, Tbilisi. They were protesting against the government's decision to delay talks to join the European Union. The police met them with water cannons. There was something mixed in the water.

20:09It didn't only get you wet, but also burned your skin. Gela Hassaya is a political activist. He felt something strange after coming into contact with the water. My skin was peeling. I had abnormal itching. I had these issues for a month at least. Water cannons were used for seven days at the start of the protests. The police blasted demonstrators as many as eight times a night, sometimes without warning. Doctors began documenting the symptoms in a medical study. It was a long-term effect. Some people had vomiting, nausea and shortness of breath as well. Paediatric doctor and protester Konstantin Chakunashvili studied over 300 cases of protesters feeling sick after being blasted by tear gas and water cannons.

21:00Some of the symptoms persisted 30 days beyond the exposure, which is a concerning sign. The Georgian government said it had mixed gas into the water used to blast the protesters, but not what chemicals had been used. But BBCI has gathered evidence suggesting there are two chemicals that could have caused long-term health damage to some of the protesters who were sprayed by the water cannons. Lasha Shogilashvili is a former head of weaponry for the Georgian riot police. During my time there, I was aware of every single item in our supply. I knew everything about the special means and weaponry. He says he previously tested chemicals he thinks are the same as those that were added to the water cannons.

21:49We tested this chemical mixer soon after it was delivered. As a result, two of the trainees threw up. It's an arts case. Lasha resigned and left Georgia in 2022. The BBC presented the evidence to several world-leading toxicologists, including Professor Christopher Holstegg. He identified one of the chemicals as trichloroethylene, a solvent absorbed through the skin that can affect the liver and the nervous system. The other, he believes, could be camite, a chemical agent once used as a weapon during World War I. If that is indeed the case, that this chemical has been brought back, that is actually exceedingly dangerous.

22:29The UN special rapporteur on torture, Dr Alice Edwards, says this would cross a red line. I would describe water cannons infused with toxins as entirely unnecessary. Given that it is poorly regulated internationally, it does lead me to consider it as an experimental weapon. and populations should never be subjected to experiments. This is absolutely in violation of human rights law. The Georgian government has described the allegations about the use of chemicals as absurd and said the police acted within the law. James Koumer-Asamy. An Israeli-Russian woman held for two and a half years by militants in Iraq has told the BBC how she was tortured in captivity.

23:18Elizabeth Surkov believes she was held by Kataib Hezbollah and was freed in September. She told Tim Franks that the ordeal has left her physically and mentally scarred. Her testimony contains graphic details that may upset some listeners. I went to Iraq to conduct fieldwork for my PhD. I'm doing a PhD at the politics department at Princeton University. on the day of my kidnapping, a woman had reached out to me, said that she's a friend of a friend, asked me to meet because she needs help with research at a cafe near my house in Karada in Baghdad. And I went to the coffee shop. She didn't show up.

23:59I waited around. Eventually, I got tired of waiting around. And so I decided to walk home. And then on the way home, basically, The car pulled up and one or two men dragged me into the car. I started screaming and resisting and trying to escape. And they beat me quite ferociously and then also sexually assaulted me. After about 30 minutes, they brought me to the place on the outskirts of Baghdad where I would remain. The torture occurred at the start of my captivity. And can you tell me what happened to you during those four and a half months? During the first month, they starved me and interrogated me.