Visible from space, bloody sands expose the slaughter of tens of thousands in Sudan

The blood is visible from space as bodies pile up from a slaughter by Rapid Support Forces fighters in Sudan.

The blood is visible from space as bodies pile up from a slaughter unprecedented in recent times.

Surrounded by a sand barrier built during an 18-month siege, most of the 250,000 people in el-Fasher, in western Sudan, have been trapped as paramilitary fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have rampaged through the city. Experts estimate tens of thousands have been killed in the past week.

With the key regional capital under a communications blackout, it has been left to eyewitness accounts as well as satellite imagery and video shared on social media to reveal the scale of what is unfolding in el-Fasher and the surrounding Darfur region, prompting humanitarian organizations to warn that the northeast African nation is returning to its genocidal past.

NBC News spoke to one of the few residents who made it out.

After the Sudanese military withdrew from the city, Mutaz Mohamed Musa said he joined thousands of people attempting to leave el-Fasher on Saturday. But almost immediately they came under shellfire, before they were surrounded by RSF fighters in pickup trucks, he said.