Another group of men were later marched past the fighters with their hands behind their backs.
Once again it came down to a pay-off: 30,000 Sudanese pounds ($50; £39) from everyone. Mohamed and a few other members of the group paid extra to release another man who had been found with a photo of an army soldier on his phone.Then Mohamed and Muzamil clambered into a motorised rickshaw and headed for the border.
Crossing into South Sudan on 20 June was an “unbelievable” moment for Mohamed.“When I saw the South Sudanese men, I thanked God and prayed,” he says. “I felt I'm alive. I really didn't believe that I am alive, that I am here. I reached South Sudan with all my data and my laptop, even though I had many encounters with the RSF.”He called his mother as soon as he was able to buy a local SIM card. “She didn't believe that I was alive,” he says.
Mohamed had been out of internet range for 11 days, and his family had no idea where he was or what was happening to him during that time.“They were very very worried,” he says. “Most of them had told me you must not try this road, don’t go, you can't make it.”
He stopped in the South Sudanese city of Aweil for a few days, where the Zaghawa family he had been travelling with hosted him in their home.
He then moved on to the capital, Juba.This flight was repeated five times until the end of January, the same month the use of Iranian drones was documented.
Qeshm Fars Air faces US sanctions due to numerous accusations of transporting weapons and fighters around the Middle East, particularly to Syria, one of Iran's main allies.Sudan had a long history of military cooperation with Iran before relations ended in 2016 due to a conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with Sudan siding with Saudi Arabia.
"Many Sudanese weapons were locally made versions of Iranian models," says Mr Baldo from the Sudan Transparency and Policy Observatory.Since the start of the current conflict, the Sudanese government has restored relations with Tehran.