To clarify the source in paragraph 2

From Nafisa Al-Taher

October 31 (Reuters) - Fighters on camels rounded up about 200 men near the Sudanese city of El Fasher at the start of the week, took them to a reservoir, shouting racist slurs before opening fire, according to a man who said he was among them.

The man, named Al-Khair Ismail, explained in a video interview conducted by a local journalist in the town of Tawila in the Darfur region of western Sudan, that one of the kidnappers recognized him from his school days and let him escape.

Ismail said, "He told them not to kill him," even after they had killed everyone with him, including his friends.

He added that he was bringing food to his relatives who were still in the city when the Rapid Support Forces took control on Sunday, and that, like other detainees, he was unarmed.

Reuters has not yet been able to verify his account.

Ismail was one of four witnesses and six aid workers interviewed by Reuters, who also said that those fleeing El Fasher were rounded up in neighboring villages, men were separated from women, and then removed.

In an earlier account, a witness said that gunshots were heard afterwards.

Activists and analysts have long warned of ethnically motivated reprisal killings by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces if they take control of El Fasher, the last Sudanese army stronghold in Darfur.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released further accounts on Friday, suggesting that hundreds of civilians and unarmed people may have been executed. Such killings constitute war crimes.

The Rapid Support Forces, whose victory in El Fasher represents a turning point in the two-and-a-half-year-long Sudanese civil war, denied committing these violations, saying the accounts were fabricated by their enemies, and leveled counter-accusations against them.

* The men were taken for questioning

Reuters verified at least three videos posted on social media showing men in Rapid Support Forces uniforms shooting unarmed prisoners, and 12 other videos showing groups of bodies after what appeared to be gunfire.

A senior commander in the Rapid Support Forces described these accounts as "media exaggeration" by the army and its allied fighters "to cover up their defeat and loss of the city of El Fasher."

He said the forces' leadership had ordered an investigation into any violations committed by its members, many of whom had been arrested, adding that the Rapid Support Forces had helped people leave the city and called on relief organizations to help those who remained.

He stated that Sudanese army soldiers and fighters posing as civilians had been "captured" for questioning. In response to a Reuters request for comment, he said, "There were no killings, contrary to what some are claiming."

The Rapid Support Forces’ control of El Fasher reinforces the issue of the division of Sudan, whose territory has already shrunk since South Sudan’s independence in 2011 following decades of civil war.

Rapid Support Forces commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) called on his fighters, in a speech Wednesday evening, to protect civilians. He said those who commit abuses would be prosecuted. He appeared to acknowledge reports of arrests when he ordered the release of those detained.

Most of the fighters repelling the Rapid Support Forces' advance in El Fasher belong to the Zaghawa tribe, whose enmity with the predominantly Arab Rapid Support Forces dates back to the early 2000s. The Rapid Support Forces, then known as the Janjaweed militia, have been accused of committing atrocities in Darfur.

Alex de Waal, a genocide expert and Darfur specialist, said that the Rapid Support Forces' reported actions in El Fasher appeared "very similar to what they did in Geneina and other places," referring to another Darfur city that was captured by the Rapid Support Forces during the early stages of the war as well as in the early 2000s.

The United States has said that the Rapid Support Forces committed genocide in El Geneina and that the International Criminal Court is investigating the attack. The Sudanese military and others accuse the UAE of aiding the Rapid Support Forces, accusations which the UAE denies.

We cannot say that they are alive

Marie Press, a protection adviser with the Nonviolent Peace Force, an NGO working in Tawila, said that the arrivals "are generally women, children and elderly men," adding that trucks organized by the Rapid Support Forces transported some people from Qarni to Tawila while others were taken to another location.

The Rapid Support Forces yesterday released a video they said showed them delivering food and medical aid to displaced people in Garne. Aid workers said the forces may also be trying to keep people in the towns they control to attract foreign aid.

Around 260,000 people were still in El Fasher at the time of the attack, but only 62,000 were counted elsewhere, and only a few thousand of them were in Tawila, which was controlled by a neutral force.

In another testimony obtained and verified by Reuters, Tahani Hassan, a former hospital cleaner, said she fled to Tawila early Sunday morning after her sister's husband and uncle were killed by stray bullets.

She added that on the way, three men wearing Rapid Support Forces uniforms arrested her and her family, searched them, beat them, and insulted them.

"They beat us badly. They threw our clothes on the ground. Even I, as a woman, was searched," she added, noting that their food and water were also poured on the ground.

They eventually reached Jarni, where the fighters separated the women and children from the men. Most of them never saw their relatives again, including Tahani's brother and her other sister's husband.

Tahani said , "We cannot say that they are alive, because of the way they treated us. If they don't kill you, hunger and thirst will kill you."

(Prepared by Ayman Saad Muslim, Noha Zakaria and Ahmed Hisham for the Arabic Bulletin - Edited by Muath Abdel Aziz)