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Aid organisations fear that far fewer people than hoped have been able to leave the besieged Darfur city.

Those who have fled the western city of el-Fasher in wartorn Sudan are recounting scenes of horrific violence at the hands of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as aid workers say they fear only a fraction of the besieged city’s residents have managed to escape.

The RSF has killed at least 1,500 people in el-Fasher, capital of North Darfur state, since seizing it Sunday – including at least 460 at a hospital in a widely-condemned massacre.

More than 36,000 people have fled since Saturday, largely on foot, to Tawila, a town around 70 kilometres (43 miles) west that is already sheltering roughly 650,000 displaced people.

Hayat, a mother of five children, told the AFP news agency via satellite phone that seven RSF fighters ransacked her home, searched her undergarments and killed her 16-year-old son in front of her.

As she fled with neighbours, “we saw many dead bodies lying on the ground and wounded people left behind in the open because their families couldn’t carry them,” she recalled.

Another survivor named Hussein was wounded by shelling but made it to Tawila with the help of a family carrying their mother on a donkey cart.

“The situation in El-Fasher is so terrible — dead bodies in the streets, and no one to bury them,” he said. We’re grateful we made it here, even if we only have the clothes we were wearing.”

Aisha Ismael, another displaced person from el-Fasher recounted to The Associated Press news agency: “Shelling and drones (attacks) were happening all the time. They hit us with the back of the rifles day and night unless we hid in the houses. At 3 in the morning we sneaked outside the houses till we arrived Hillat Alsheth (area in north Darfur) where we were looted. They left us with nothing, I came here barefoot, even my shoes were taken.”

But aid workers in Tawila say they’re still waiting for most of el-Fasher’s supposed evacuees.

Mathilde Vu, advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which manages the Tawila camp, told the Associated Press “the number of people who made it to Tawila is very small”.

“Where are the others?” she said. “That tells the horror of the journey.”

The United Nations moved to approve a $20 million allocation for Sudan from the Central Emergency Response Fund to help scale up response efforts in Tawila and elsewhere in Darfur, UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday.

The UN was “horrified” by the slaughter of more than 450 people at Saudi Hospital, where patients, health workers and residents had sought shelter, Dujarric added.

Elderly people, the wounded and those with disabilities remained “stranded and unable to flee the area”, he said.

Shayna Lewis, a Sudan specialist, told Al Jazeera the massacre of civilians was “most devastating because we in civil society have been warning the international community for over a year about the atrocity risks for the civilian population of North Darfur”.

For 18 months before Sudan’s army withdrew from the city, an RSF siege had trapped hundreds of thousands of people trapped inside without food or essentials.

What’s most “astonishing”, Lewis added, was the ability to see the bloodshed from outer space: Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) reported satellite imagery shows clusters of objects consistent with human bodies and large areas of red discolouration on the ground.

A 24-year-old Honduran man who was fleeing federal immigration agents in Virginia died on a highway after being struck by a vehicle.

The death of Josué Castro Rivera follows recent incidents in which three other immigrants in Chicago and California were killed during immigration enforcement operations under the Trump administration’s crackdown.

Castro Rivera was headed to a gardening job Thursday when his vehicle was pulled over by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, brother Henry Castro said.

Agents tried to detain Castro Rivera and the three other passengers, and he fled on foot, tried to cross Interstate 264 in Norfolk and was fatally struck, according to state and federal authorities.

Castro Rivera came to the United States four years ago and was working to send money to family in Honduras, according to his brother.

“He had a very good heart,” Castro said Sunday.

The Department of Homeland Security said Castro Rivera’s vehicle was stopped by ICE as part of a “targeted, intelligence-based” operation and passengers were detained for allegedly living in the country without legal permission.

DHS said in a statement that Castro Rivera “resisted heavily and fled” and died after a passing vehicle struck him. DHS officials did not respond Sunday to requests for further comment.

Virginia State Police said officers responded to a report of a vehicle-pedestrian crash around 11 a.m. Thursday on eastbound I-264 at the Military Highway interchange. Police said Castro Rivera was hit by a 2002 Ford pickup and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The crash remains under investigation.

Federal authorities and state police gave his first name as Jose, but family members said it was Josué. DHS and state police did not explain the discrepancy.

Castro called his brother’s death an injustice and said he is raising money to transport the body back to Honduras for the funeral.

“He didn’t deserve everything that happened to him,” Castro said.

DHS blamed Castro Rivera’s death on “a direct result of every politician, activist and reporter who continue to spread propaganda and misinformation about ICE’s mission and ways to avoid detention.”

Similar deaths amid immigration operations elsewhere have triggered protests, lawsuits and calls for investigation amid claims that the Trump administration’s initial accounts are misleading.

Last month in suburban Chicago, federal immigration agents fatally shot a Mexican man during a traffic stop. DHS initially said a federal officer was “seriously injured,” but police body camera video showed the federal officer walking around and describing his own injuries as “ nothing major.”

In July, a farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof during a chaotic ICE raid at a California cannabis facility died of his injuries. And in August, a man ran away from federal agents onto a freeway in the same state and was fatally struck by a vehicle.

Tareen and Walling write for the Associated Press.

Renewed fighting between rival leaders forces mass exodus across South Sudan’s borders as fears of wider war rise.

About 300,000 people have fled South Sudan so far in 2025 as armed conflict between rival leaders threatens civil war, the United Nations warns.

The mass displacement was reported on Monday by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan. The report cautioned that the conflict between President Salva Kiir and suspended First Vice President Riek Machar risks a return to full-scale war.

The commission’s report called for an urgent regional intervention to prevent the country from sliding towards such a tragic event.

South Sudan has been beset by political instability and ethnic violence since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011.

The country plunged into civil war in 2013 when Kiir dismissed Machar as vice president. The pair agreed a ceasefire in 2017, but their fragile power-sharing agreement has been unravelling for months and was suspended last month amid outbreaks of violence among forces loyal to each.

Machar was placed under house arrest in March after fighting between the military and an ethnic Nuer militia in the northeastern town of Nasir killed dozens of people and displaced more than 80,000.

He was charged with treason, murder and crimes against humanity in September although his lawyer argued the court lacked jurisdiction. Kiir suspended Machar from his position in early October.

Machar rejects the charges with his spokesman calling them a “political witch-hunt”.

Renewed clashes in South Sudan have driven almost 150,000 people to Sudan, where a civil war has raged for two years, and a similar number into neighbouring Uganda, Ethiopia and as far as Kenya.

More than 2.5 million South Sudanese refugees now live in neighbouring countries while two million remain internally displaced.

The commission linked the current crisis to corruption and lack of accountability among South Sudan’s leaders.

“The ongoing political crisis, increasing fighting and unchecked, systemic corruption are all symptoms of the failure of leadership,” Commissioner Barney Afako said.

“The crisis is the result of deliberate choices made by its leaders to put their interests above those of their people,” Commission Chairwoman Yasmin Sooka said.

A UN report in September detailed significant corruption, alleging that $1.7bn from an oil-for-roads programme remains unaccounted for while three-quarters of the country faces severe food shortages.

Commissioner Barney Afako warned that without immediate regional engagement, South Sudan risks catastrophic consequences.

“South Sudanese are looking to the African Union and the region to rescue them from a preventable fate,” he said.

A 22-YEAR-old man has been convicted of stabbing a teenager to death after attempting to flee the UK to avoid justice.

Romario Gordon, 22, was part of a masked gang who knifed 16-year-old Camron Smith to death in front of his mum in their home in Croydon, South London.

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Gordon was convicted of manslaughter at the Old Bailey on Thursday, becoming the fourth person to be found guilty for Camron’s death.

The brutal mob, who were “effectively hunting as a pack”, stormed the lad’s house on 1 July 2021, the court heard.

They kicked down a door, forced their way in, and chased Camron upstairs where he tried to barricade himself and his mum inside a bedroom.

In a desperate bid to protect her son, Audrey Johnson, reportedly tried to grab the attacker’s black serrated zombie knife.

Jurors also heard that Johnson stood in front of Camron with her arms outstretched in an attempt to save him.

But it wasn’t long before the thugs surrounded the 16-year-old and fatally stabbed him.

He was dressed in his underwear at the time.

Gordon, who was 17 at the time, was later spotted on CCTV fleeing in a taxi the group had stolen before their merciless attack.

He then dumped the knife in a nearby road.

Cops said the group had earlier held a knife to cabbie’s throat and made off with his car.

The masked thugs were later caught on CCTV, armed with knives, looking for people they believed were linked to the stabbing of one of their mates.

They stormed three homes in Croydon before making their way to Camron’s door on Bracken Avenue, cops said.

Gordon fled The Gambia before he could be arrested, the court heard.

Cops quickly issued an international arrest warrant and Gordon was returned to the UK.

He remained in custody before his trial.

‘SHOCKING’

More teens have been killed in the capital in the first six months of this year than in the whole of 2020.

A neighbour at the time said: “It must have happened so quickly.

“I didn’t hear anything last night. It’s absolutely shocking that a child like that could be killed on a doorstep.”

Neighbour Samantha Gail added: “It’s usually a quiet area. It’s so sad. This is such a friendly area where everyone is polite to each other and there is a real community feel.”

Pictures showed a huge cordon in place on the estate as police investigated the killing.

One local told MyLondon: “It’s continuous, people outside the house with knives, smoking weed, smashing bottles and now its led to a murder… it’s getting worse.

“Police were doing door to door enquires at half past 2 this morning. I didn’t see the commotion, all I heard was a helicopter going round and round and when I woke up, I saw loads of blue lights.

“I think London is getting worse in general.”

A Met Spokesperson said: “Camron was just 16 when his life was brutally ended in a frenzy of violence in his own home.

“Romario Gordon is the fourth person convicted over Camron’s killing. The path to justice in this case has been long, and our thoughts are with Camron’s family and friends, who have endured multiple trials.

“The injuries inflicted on Camron were shocking. From the very start, the investigation team was determined to get the people responsible off our streets.

“Despite the complexity of the investigation, and attempts to hinder our enquiries, we have succeeded in bringing him to justice.”

PTSD, anxiety and depression higher in refugee children

Sameer tells Al Jazeera,“Scenes of those things which I witnessed had a very bad effect on me and still when I remember, it [makes] me upset.”

Research with refugee children finds the prevalence of emotional disorders to be generally higher than in non-refugee children.

According to one study, the overall prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was 23 percent (one in four) in refugee children, that of anxiety disorders was 16 percent (one in six) and that of depression was 14 percent (one in seven).

“One of the things about trauma is it keeps you on this very high state of alert,” says Trickey. “And I think those without refugee status, they’re living this constant fear of being returned to the place they fled.”

But not all children experience trauma the same way, Trickey adds.

“A more important risk factor, a predictor of PTSD, is not how big the event was, but it’s what you make of it. Were you afraid? Did you think someone was gonna die?

“And different children will find different things frightening. There’ll be some people that actually experience the most awful things and seem pretty unaffected, and they do OK. There’ll be some people that seem to be doing OK, and then they have, we can sometimes call it, latent vulnerability. And later on in life, that’s when they develop difficulties.”

Ventevogel tells Al Jazeera that often, in younger children, there may be more issues with withdrawal, because they cannot verbalise how they feel, for example where “a child withdraws, stops playing with other children, or a child shows in play, in the way the child enacts issues, that there is something not OK.

“It’s not diagnostic, but this can be an indication that there is something deeper,” Ventevogel says.

Trickey explains that during a trauma-focused therapy session, a boy he was working with described what he was going through by comparing his brain to a wastepaper bin stuffed with “scrunched-up pieces of paper” that represent “all the bad things” he had been through.

“And as I walk to school, they fall in front of my eyes. And when I lie down and go to sleep, they fall into my dreams,” the boy told him. “But when I come and see you, we take them out of the bin, and we unscrunch them. Then we read them through carefully, then we fold them up neatly, and then we put them back in the bin. But because they’re folded up neatly, it means they don’t fall out the top, and I’ve got more room in my head to think about other things.”

For Sameer, his ability to cope came down to his mindset. “With the passage of time, I became used to the situation and I feel confident and fine now. And I hope, whatever problems or difficulties I face in the future, I will overcome and hopefully things will get normal.”

EMERGING from a carpet shop in Iran’s beautiful and ancient city of Esfahan, I was engulfed by a group of jostling young men.

Like a desert mirage, as quickly as they had arrived they were gone.

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Patting myself down, a zip on my trouser pocket was undone.

My passport was gone.

And this so-called Axis of Evil nation had no British Embassy to get a replacement.

Hands trembling uncontrollably, my adrenalin-induced sweat of fear smelt like cat’s urine.

There can be few more hazardous places on Earth for a journalist without papers — and an entry stamp — than the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Years later Barry Rosen — a US embassy worker held hostage there in 1979 — told me how his interrogation played out.

With a rifle pressed to his temple, Barry was told he had ten seconds to admit he was a spy.

As the grim countdown began, the New Yorker wrestled with the dilemma of either being perceived as a traitor to his country or leaving his kids fatherless.

“On the count of five I relented,” Barry told me.

“I signed the false confession, distraught and ­completely ashamed.”

Barry would eventually return to his loved ones in the US after 444 days in captivity.

Britons are high-value hostages for the regime.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in Iran for six years on trumped-up charges of plotting to topple the Iranian government.

She was finally released when Britain paid a £400million outstanding debt to Iran.

I would eventually get out — more on how later — after staying with an extraordinarily kind Iranian man who put me up in his apartment and tempered my nerves with some rocket-fuel home brew.

Today — with Iran’s tyrannical regime in Israeli and US crosshairs — I cast my mind back to the welcoming people I met while travelling this ancient land.

These folk loathe rule by the hardline ayatollahs and long for a time less than 50 years ago when women wore miniskirts in capital Tehran, the hair bouncing on their shoulders.

I had arrived in Iran — successor state of the Persian Empire — in 2012 with the idea of travelling from Tehran to Persepolis, a millennia-old desert ruin once the centrepiece of its civilisation.

On the way I’d talk to ordinary people to try and understand what made this land tick.

Did they really think Britain was the cursed Little Satan?

‘GREAT SATAN’

On landing in Tehran — a high-rise city of 9.8million shrouded by mountains — fleets of white taxis honked their way through the city’s awful traffic.

In the pollution-choked centre, I was struck by the number of women walking around with white plasters on their noses.

Tehran has been called the nose job capital of the world.

Women here also face a daily battle over what they can wear in public, with checks made by the dreaded Basij militia network.

Yet many were wearing their head scarves pulled back to reveal dyed blonde hair, while their overcoats were colourful and figure-hugging.

Since the 1979 Iranian revolution, when the Shah — or king — Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was toppled and replaced by hardline cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Islamic dress has been strictly enforced.

Alcohol was banned, protests stifled and unmarried couples prevented from meeting in public.

Today, the internet is censored and the regime attempts to scramble satellite TV signals.

Near the Taleghani Metro station is the old American embassy — known here as “the nest of spies” — its walls daubed with murals and slogans decrying the so-called Great Satan.

Months after the revolution, students stormed the embassy compound and took 66 Americans hostage.

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A disastrous and aborted US rescue mission the following year — when eight servicemen were killed in a helicopter crash — badly damaged US president Jimmy Carter’s reputation.

The lingering stigma of that failure was perhaps a factor in why Donald Trump took his time before deciding to unleash American firepower on Iran.

In Palestine Square — in the heart of Tehran — beats a Doomsday Clock predicting Israel’s end by the year 2040. The regime put it there in 2017.

It helps explain why Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear sites, senior nuclear scientists and top brass last week.

Nearby, I visited the British embassy compound, its gateway overlooked by lion and unicorn statues.

Around six months before my visit, diplomats had fled as a frenzied mob of Iran- ian “students” storm- ed the building and ransacked offices.

It would remain shuttered for nearly four years.

The rioters — who were chanting “Death To England” — were in fact state-sponsored Basij thugs.

It is the same sinister paramilitary force that is responsible for the policing of morals in this hardline Shi’ite Muslim state, including the wearing of the hijab or headscarf.

Yet these repressive goons are far from representative of the beating heart of this oil-rich nation.

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A short stroll away in the teeming Grand Bazaar, women shoppers, in the all- covering black cloak-like chador, were out looking for bargains.

But surprisingly, Union Jack-patterned knickers and bra combos were on sale on at least three stalls.

American stars and stripes underwear was also available in several shops.

One black-clad shopper in her thirties told me: “The underwear is very popular.

“We have nothing against your country.”

The message that the lingerie worn under the chadors sent out was clear: Knickers to the hardliners.

Indeed, as a metaphor for things being very different under the surface in Iran, it couldn’t be bettered.

Another stall sold Manchester United bath towels in a nation where the Premier League is avidly followed.

“We don’t hate Britain,” a 26-year-old Red Devils-mad taxi driver told me.

“Far from it.

“We admire your freedom.”

After a few days in Tehran I took a shared taxi on the five-hour, 280-mile journey to Iran’s third largest city Esfahan.

It’s home to an exquisite square overlooked by the imposing aquamarine dome of Shah Mosque, regarded as one of the masterpieces of Persian architecture.

The city’s outskirts are also home to one of the largest uranium enrichment facilities in the country.

‘EVERYBODY BREWS THEIR OWN NOW’

Terrified that Iran was close to producing a nuclear weapon to make good on its doomsday prophecy, the site was pummeled by more than two dozen US Tomahawk cruise missiles on Sunday morning.

I had checked into a largely empty hotel in the city centre which had no safe for valuables.

That evening I went out shopping for a Persian rug.

Warily passing some soldiers in the street, I was dismayed to see them beckon me over.

Yet they simply wanted a selfie alongside a rare Western traveller.

Emerging with my new carpet, I was heading for an electronics store bearing a fake Apple logo when I was surrounded by pickpockets.

Now passportless, I was petrified about being stopped by police and asked to produce my documents.

I then remembered meeting some Iranian migrants in Calais who had told me they used to work as smugglers, trekking over the mountains from Iran to Turkey with some contraband alcohol in backpacks.

Finding an internet cafe to research the journey, a man started using the computer next to me to watch porn.

The idea of attempting to walk alone over rugged mountains seemed more hazardous than another internet suggestion — go to another country’s embassy and throw myself at their mercy.

Travelling back to Tehran I attempted to check into a hotel but the receptionist insisted I needed to show my passport.

When I explained my predicament, he told me: “I’ll phone the police and they’ll sort this out.”

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I told him I needed to collect my luggage then scarpered.

Knowing no one in the country, a contact then put me in touch with someone who could put me up.

The grey-haired father lived alone in a ramshackle flat and said I was welcome to the sofa.

“I was jailed for protesting against the Shah when he ruled,” he told me.

“Now I wish I hadn’t bothered.

“This regime is far worse.

“We have far less freedom now.”

Deciding the Dutch would be most amenable to a stricken Brit, I tried their embassy but it was closed for holidays.

So I went to the Danes instead.

They took my details and I was told to return the following day.

Presented with a paper Danish temporary passport 24 hours later, I profusely thanked the embassy staff for making me an honorary viking.

Taking a cab to the airport, I checked my bag on the flight then queued up at immigration dreaming of a glass of red on the plane.

A bearded border guard disdainfully looked at my Danish passport, sniffing as he tossed it away: “No good, no ministry stamp.”

It was back to my new friend’s sofa to watch subtitled TV, including shows with Jamie Oliver and James May.

The former prisoner — raising a glass of home-distilled spirits — revealed: “Twice every year the police go upon the roof and smash up all our satellite dishes.

“But we simply go out and buy some more.

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“There’s a saying here that the regime closed down thousands of brewers during the revolution but created a million more.

“Everybody brews their own now.”

After two days queuing at the relevant Iranian ministry — and praying that they wouldn’t google my identity — I finally got my stamp.

My plane banked over the vast mausoleum built to house Khomeini’s remains as it headed west.

One after another, most of the women on the flight removed their head scarves, then their restrictive chadors.

Settling with a glass of wine, I hoped one day to return to this fascinating land under better circumstances.

Now, with the ayatollahs’ regime perhaps at threat of being toppled, I may one day make it to Persepolis.

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A TEENAGER is fighting for his life in hospital after falling from a balcony while allegedly fleeing police.

The 19-year-old man suffered critical injuries after falling off an “upper balcony from height” in Tameside, Manchester, said cops.

A 14-year-old boy was also seriously injured in the same fall on Saturday night, according to Greater Manchester Police.

It came after police received reports of a “group of males with machetes making threats towards individuals” at the location.

Upon arrival, at around 7.20pm, officers gave chase to three males who “tried to leave” the property, with one of the three escaping through a lower balcony.

The 19-year-old who fell from the balcony then sustained serious injuries.

Footage from the scene showed emergency services at the foot of Bentinck House, a 12 storey tower block on the outskirts of Ashton town centre.

Three people have been arrested and drugs and a weapon have also been seized, said police.

Witnesses reported seeing armed police and an air ambulance at the scene.

Det Supt Gareth Jenkins from the Tameside District said: “The two injured parties, aged 14 and 19, have been taken to hospital for treatment of serious injuries, with the older male in a critical condition.

“These males are under the detention of officers pending their medical treatment, and another male has been arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of drugs.

“Enquiries are ongoing to determine all of those involved and the full circumstances of what has happened in the lead up to the incident. Suspected drugs and a weapon have been recovered.

“A small scene remains in place at the property and residents in the area should expect to see further police activity.

“Anyone with any information which has not yet been provided to us, or with any concerns, should speak to officers on the ground.

“I’d like to reassure the community that this incident is believed to be between individuals known to one another, with no wider risk to the community.”

Police are looking for any witnesses to come forward with any information that could aid their inquiries.

Anyone with information is being urged to call 101 quoting incident number 2849 of May 31 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.