Abdulqadir Abdullah Ali suffered serious nerve damage to his leg during the long siege of the Sudanese city of el-Fasher because he could not get medicine for his diabetes.

The 62-year-old walks with a heavy limp, but he was so panicked when fighters from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) finally captured the city in the western Darfur region, he felt no pain as he ran.

The morning the RSF came there were bullets, many bullets, and explosives going off, he says.

People were out of control [with fear], they ran out of their houses, and everyone ran in different directions, the father, the son, the daughter - running.

The fall of el-Fasher after an 18-month siege is a particularly brutal chapter in Sudan's civil war.

The BBC has travelled to a tent camp hundreds of miles away in the deserts of northern Sudan in army-controlled territory to hear first-hand the stories of those who escaped. The team was monitored by the authorities throughout the visit.

The RSF has been fighting the regular army since April 2023 when a power struggle between them erupted into war.

Taking over el-Fasher was a major victory for the paramilitary group, pushing the army out of its last foothold in Darfur.

But evidence of mass atrocities has drawn international condemnation and focused greater American attention on trying to end the conflict.

We found Mr Ali wandering around a camp, trying to register his family for a tent.

They [RSF fighters] were shooting at the people - the elderly, the civilians, with live ammunition, they would empty their guns on them, he told us.

Some of the RSF came with their cars. If they saw someone was still breathing, they drove over them.

Mr Ali said he ran when he could, crawling along the ground or hiding when the threat got too close. He managed to get to the village of Gurni.

The road here was full of death, with dead bodies left unburied lying around.

Others crossed into Chad. But the UN says less than half of the estimated 260,000 people in el-Fasher before it fell have been accounted for. Aid agencies believe many people did not get very far, unable to escape due to danger and the cost of buying their way through checkpoints.

Many women and children in the camp remain wary, sharing painful experiences of separation from their families and the traumatic events faced while fleeing the violence.

The RSF has rejected accusations of systematic abuses against civilians, but survivors continue to echo their traumatic journeys as the humanitarian crisis escalates.