When Sudanese nurse Asmaa returned to the Darfur city of El-Fasher, she found only bodies where her neighbours once lived and no sign of the family she had come to save.The Rapid Support Forces, battling Sudan’s military since April 2023, seized the army’s last stronghold in Darfur on October 26 in a bloody offensive marked by executions, atrocities, pillaging and rape.Since then, an RSF-imposed communications blackout has sealed El-Fasher off from the outside world. Little has been known since RSF fighters posted images eight weeks ago showing mass killings that shocked the world.AFP managed to speak to two residents inside the city via satellite internet, collected accounts from two aid groups that gained rare access, and analysed satellite imagery to piece together an image of El-Fasher under the RSF.More than 106,000 people have fled El-Fasher since the takeover, while between 70,000 and 100,000 remain trapped, according to the World Food Programme.Asmaa fled the city on the Sunday it fell to the RSF, but was detained with 11 others near the South Darfur capital Nyala and released only after paying a $3,000 ransom.Instead of escaping for good, she went back to El-Fasher, and has spent five weeks searching for her brothers, brother-in-law and several cousins, amid reports of thousands still detained in the city.”I do not know if they are detained or dead. I just keep looking in shelters, schools, everywhere,” she told AFP.What she has found instead is a city “terrifying and full of bodies”.Her own home has been “completely destroyed”.Asked by a neighbour to check on his family, she entered their house and found “two bodies inside”. She recognised them as his cousins, and ran in terror.”They were still fresh,” she said.Near her home, she saw deep burial pits she says were used to “erase evidence of killings”.Satellite imagery analysed by AFP corroborates her account, revealing an increasing number of what look like graves in a 3,600-square-metre area near UNICEF headquarters.Grave-shaped earth disturbances in the area controlled by the RSF since early October, have continued to increase from September.- ‘Completely empty’ -What little is known about conditions in El-Fasher is “beyond horrific”, the WFP said, citing accounts of burned bodies, abandoned markets and roads littered with mines.A Red Crescent volunteer, speaking to AFP anonymously from the city, said his team entered El-Fasher on December 4 and buried “bodies scattered” across streets and buildings, with new corpses reported daily.Satellite analysis from late November by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) revealed “piles of objects consistent with human bodies”, being moved around, buried and burned, with RSF forces present, its director Nathaniel Raymond told AFP.In areas once bustling with activity, streets are now empty.An analysis of recent satellite images by AFP shows no visible activity at four main markets across the city in mid-December, areas that were busy before the war began.Ismail, who returned to El-Fasher from the nearby town of Garni five weeks after the takeover, described a deserted neighbourhood, his home partially damaged and stripped bare.”The area is completely empty. When I go out to get something, I fear for my family,” Ismail told AFP, using a pseudonym for his safety.For 18 months under siege, civilians in El-Fasher eked out a meagre existence on animal feed and cowhide. The UN confirmed famine last month, and the city has received virtually no aid.One of the few groups granted access, Malam Darfur Peace and Development Organisation, told AFP it delivered food and blankets on December 2 but found a severe shortage of water, food and medicine.- Trapped inside -Doctors without Borders (MSF) teams in the refugee town of Tawila, 70 kilometres west, say they have received numerous fresh reports of kidnappings inside El-Fasher and along escape routes.”The RSF wants to keep people inside,” MSF emergency coordinator Myriam Laaroussi told AFP, adding that many attempting to leave recently were forced back.Those who make it recount families paying ransoms, men tortured or shot, parents killed and children left unaccompanied, she said.The RSF has dismissed accusations as “fabricated narratives”, claimed it was investigating and sought to broadcast a different image of El-Fasher under their rule.In videos, they boast “reconstruction” campaigns, a new police station and inspections of the city’s water plant, while urging residents to resume “normal” life.The conflict in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions more and unleashed a new litany of horrors on the people of Darfur, long-scarred by the atrocities committed in the early 2000s by the RSF’s predecessor, the Janjaweed.

More than a month after Iraq’s parliamentary elections, the country’s top leaders remain locked in talks to form a government while facing pressure from Washington to exclude Tehran-backed armed groups.Amid seismic changes in the Middle East, where new alliances are forming and old powers waning, Iraqi leaders face a daunting task: navigating relations with US-blacklisted pro-Iranian factions.- What does the US want? -The US has held significant sway over Iraqi politics since leading the 2003 invasion that ousted long-time ruler Saddam Hussein.But another spectre also haunts Iraq’s halls of power: Washington’s arch-foe, Iran.Iraq has long been caught between the two, with successive governments negotiating a delicate balance.Now, after November’s election, Washington has demanded the eventual government must exclude Iran-backed armed groups and instead move to dismantle them, Iraqi officials and diplomats told AFP.A State Department spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “Iraqi leaders well know what is and is not compatible with a strong US-Iraq partnership”.Washington, the spokesperson said, “will continue to speak plainly to the urgency of dismantling Iran-backed militias”.But some of these groups have increased their presence in the new chamber and have joined the Coordination Framework, an alliance of Shiite parties with varying ties to Iran and which holds the majority.For weeks, the Coordination Framework has been embroiled in talks to nominate the next prime minister. “The US has put conditions that armed factions should not be part of the new government,” a senior Iraqi official said. The factions must disarm and “sever ties with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard,” he added.In recent tweets, the US special envoy to Iraq, Mark Savaya said that Iraqi leaders are at a “crossroads”.Their decision “will send a clear and unmistakable signal to the United States… that Iraq is ready to claim its rightful place as a stable and respected nation in the new Middle East.”The alternative is equally clear: economic deterioration, political confusion, and international isolation,” Savaya said.- Which armed groups? -The US has blacklisted as “terrorist organisations” several armed groups from within the Hashed al-Shaabi, a former paramilitary alliance now integrated into the armed forces.They are also part of the Iran-backed so-called “axis of resistance” and have called for the withdrawal of US troops — deployed in Iraq as part of an anti-jihadist coalition — and launched attacks against them.Most of these groups hold seats in parliament and have seen their political and financial clout increase.The Asaib Ahl al-Haq faction, led by Qais al-Khazali, who is a key figure in the Coordination Framework, won 27 seats in the latest election, making it harder to exclude it from the government.A potential compromise is to deny it a key portfolio, as in the current government.”The US has turned a blind eye before, so they might after all engage with the government as a whole but not with ministries held by armed groups,” a former Iraqi official said.Other blacklisted groups are: + Kataeb Hezbollah, one of the most powerful armed groups, supports a parliamentary bloc (six seats).+ Kataeb Sayyid al-Shuhada, Kataeb Imam Ali and Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya.+ The al-Nujaba movement is the only group that has steered clear of elections.- What is at stake? -Iraq has its economic growth to worry about.After decades of turmoil, it has only begun to regain a sense of normalcy in recent years. Washington has already imposed sanctions on several Iraqi entities and banks, accusing them of helping Tehran evade sanctions.But Iraqi leaders hope for greater foreign investments and support partnerships with US companies.The most striking endorsement came from Khazali, an opponent of the US military presence who now argues that it would be in Baghdad’s interest for major US companies to invest.Since the Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza began in October 2023, Iraq has remained relatively unscathed by the turmoil engulfing the Middle East.Iraqi armed groups did launch attacks on US troops and largely unsuccessful ones on Israel. Washington responded with heavy strikes, and the attacks have long-since halted.Iraq remained the only close regional ally of Iran to stay out of Israel’s crosshairs.So far, the US has acted as a buffer, helping to prevent an Israeli attack, but Iraqis have been warned of  strikes against the armed groups, multiple sources said.But as the presence of American forces dwindles, fears are growing.