"Everyone was fleeing the inferno of flames," RSF was told by one of the surviving journalists, referring to the images etched in his memory by the paramilitary assault on El-Fasher that began on 26 October, continued for several days and reportedly left several thousand civilians dead.

This journalist, whose identity is being withheld for his safety, had remained in the capital of a region identified by RSF as "one of the worst areas in the country for media professionals" to cover the more than 18-month siege by the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group opposed to Sudan's national army. He was one of the last remaining sources of information for the outside world.

Forced to flee by the final assault, he was detained by the paramilitary group's fighters at the edge of El-Fasher, beaten, humiliated and subjected to death threats with the aim of making him confess to a supposed link with the national army. Stripped of all his belongings and the main tool of his trade, his mobile phone, he was eventually released. A five-day trek ensued across deserted and scorched lands, during which he was subjected to hunger, thirst and constant threats from the paramilitaries.

Another journalist who stayed to cover the siege of El-Fasher until the massacres at the end of October described a similar sequence of abuses - arbitrary arrest, extortion, interrogation under torture, racist insults and death threats. "I wasn't recognised as a journalist," he said, when asked about the danger of summary execution because of his work. Referring to his phone, he added: "I had deleted anything that could reveal my profession."

According to the information obtained by RSF, nine other journalists fled El-Fasher after 26 October. Those contacted by RSF said they were subjected to similar acts of torture by the paramilitaries.

A likely victim of enforced disappearance

There is still no news of one of the journalists who was in El-Fasher during the massacres and who is the presumed victim of enforced disappearance by the Rapid Support Forces, which have been abducting many civilians for ransom.

Two other independent journalists are being held by the paramilitaries. They are Mouammar Ibrahim, a reporter for the Qatari television news channel Al Jazeera, and the independent photojournalist Ibrahim Jibril Abkar.

During the two and a half years of fighting between paramilitaries and national army that led to the assault on El-Fasher, both sides have been guilty of crimes against journalists. At least seven journalists have been killed and another is missing. Around 15 media professionals have been imprisoned, and two of them are still detained.