Rapid Support Forces accused of killing more than 2,000 unarmed civilians in El Fasher in recent days
Reports of ethnically motivated mass killings and other atrocities are emerging from El Fasher after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces took control of the town in Sudan’s western Darfur region last week.
A video released by local activists showed a fighter known for executing civilians in RSF-controlled areas shooting at close range at a group of unarmed civilians sitting on the ground.
Different images shared by pro-democracy activists allegedly showed dozens of people dead on the ground next to burning vehicles. Images have not been verified.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Joint Forces – which are allied with Sudan’s army – accused the RSF of having executed more than 2,000 unarmed civilians in recent days.
The claim could not be verified, but Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Laboratory, which has been monitoring the war in Sudan using open-source intelligence and satellite imagery, said on Monday it had found evidence consistent with alleged mass killings by the RSF.
On Tuesday, the Yale lab said the city “appears to be in the process of systematic and intentional ethnic cleansing of the non-Arab Fur, Zaghawa, and Berti indigenous communities through forced displacement and summary execution.” This included what appeared to be “door-to-door clean-up operations” in the city, he said.
The RSF said on Sunday it had taken control of the main army base in the city and released a statement saying it had “expanded control over the city of El Fasher from the clutches of mercenaries and militias”.
Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said on Monday that his forces had withdrawn from El Fasher “to a safer location”, acknowledging the loss of the city.
The RSF has been involved in a bloody civil war with the army since April 2023 following a power struggle between the two sides. More than 150,000 people have been killed and more than 14 million have been displaced due to the fighting.
Fears for the safety of tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the city by an 18-month RSF siege have grown in recent weeks.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Monday there was a growing risk of “ethnically motivated violations and atrocities” in El Fasher. His office said it was “receiving several alarming reports that the Rapid Support Forces are committing atrocities, including summary executions.”
The UN Human Rights Office said there were reports of “summary execution of civilians trying to flee, with evidence of ethnic motivations for the killings”, as well as videos showing “dozens of unarmed men being shot or killed, surrounded by RSF fighters who accuse them of being combatants [do exército sudanês]”.
News agencies have been unable to contact civilians in the city, where the Sudanese Journalists’ Union says communications, including satellite networks, have been cut in a media blackout.
Shayna Lewis, a Sudan expert at Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities, one of the groups in close contact with Darfur’s civil society, accused the RSF of massacring civilians. She said: “Residents of El Fasher, who previously left the town, are discovering the deaths of their loved ones through images of executions that are circulating widely on social media.”
There are serious fears of a repeat of the RSF massacres that occurred in West Darfur’s capital, Geneina, after the organization captured the city in 2023, when up to 15,000 civilians — mostly from non-Arab groups — were killed.
According to the UN, more than 1 million people have fled El Fasher since the start of the war and around 260,000 civilians, half of them children, remain trapped without help. Many turned to animal food.
The UN migration agency said more than 26,000 people have fled fighting in El Fasher since Sunday, seeking safety on the outskirts of the city or heading to Tawila, 45 miles west.
In Tawila, teams from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported facing a massive flow of injured people from El Fasher to the city’s hospital. Since Sunday night, 130 people have been hospitalized, including 15 in critical condition, MSF said.
The RSF’s capture of El Fasher, the last remaining major city in Darfur controlled by the army, gives the paramilitary group control over all five state capitals in Darfur and marks a significant turnaround in the war.
The army is now excluded from a third of Sudanese territory, a development that experts say increases the possibility of the country facing a split.
Originally published by The Guardian on 10/28/2025
By Carlos Mureithi in Nairobi and Agence France-Presse
Source: https://www.ocafezinho.com/2025/10/28/assassinatos-em-massa-sao-relatados-em-cidade-sudanesa-tomada-por-grupo-paramilitar/
