RSF fighters film themselves massacring Sudanese fleeing el-Fasher

The moment the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced it had stormed the city of el-Fasher on Sunday morning, it was clear that 260,000 Sudanese trapped in the city were in serious and immediate danger.

Since Sudan’s war began in April 2023, RSF fighters have been accused of widespread massacres and abuses, including a genocide elsewhere in Darfur.

Over the past two days, similar scenes have begun emerging from el-Fasher, a western Sudanese city that has been under siege for more than 500 days.

Middle East Eye has reviewed dozens of video clips and images allegedly taken in el-Fasher since the RSF assault began.

Some were published by the RSF itself; others emerged on social media, particularly Sudanese Telegram groups.

The footage depicts chaotic and bloody scenes, captured by triumphant RSF fighters. Investigations suggest the videos are new. The Arabic dialect spoken is Sudanese - particularly Darfuri - and the fighters’ dress is consistent with members of the RSF.

Several videos and images were taken in locations that MEE has confirmed are locations within el-Fasher or are consistent with the topography around the city.

Other footage is misleading. A photographed being widely shared of a woman and two children hanging lifeless from a tree is in fact at least eight months old and its location is uncertain.

RSF announces victory

On Sunday morning, the RSF announced it had seized the Sixth Infantry division garrison, the headquarters of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) troops defending el-Fasher.

About 40 minutes later, the RSF’s official media department published footage of fighters celebrating in the garrison, surrounded by bullet hole-ridden buildings.

Another video it released shows Abdel-Rahim Hamdan Dagalo, brother and second-in-command of RSF leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (aka Hemedti), addressing his troops and telling the people of el-Fasher to return to their houses.

“Our instructions to all our forces are that all the property of the people must not be touched,” he says. “El-Fasher is safe and protected by the RSF fighters.”

Drone footage released by the RSF shortly before shows scores of people in the fields outside the city fleeing on foot.

Soon after the RSF’s official publications, videos began circulating that appear to be taken by fighters themselves in and around el-Fasher.

One shows RSF members on one of the city’s streets, riding camels, driving pickup trucks and walking with their guns held aloft.

“The nomads are inside el-Fasher,” one man says.

El-Fasher’s communications have been severed for months. Before the RSF assault, contact was only made with people inside the city through Starlink internet connections.

Since the paramilitaries took the city, contact has been lost with almost everyone.

One figure to appear in RSF captivity is Muammar Ibrahim, a freelance reporter who contributed to Al Jazeera. Several videos have circulated showing he has been detained.

Fears have also been raised for other prominent Sudanese. Some media workers, activists and politicians have been reported killed, but MEE was not able to independently verify the reports.

One video circulating on Monday showed an unidentified woman lifeless on the ground.

“We are in el-Fasher and this is the journalist herself. Let her appear on the camera. Why don’t you stand up?” says the voice of someone out of shot.

Fleeing in the fields

Before the war, the fields surrounding el-Fasher were used by cereal farmers and grazing animals. Now, videos show, they are full of Sudanese fleeing for their lives.

Videos circulating on Monday show RSF fighters in pickup trucks chasing after people on foot.

“Look at this large number. Catch up with the girls that are in the front,” a fighter says in one video, gunfire ringing out in the background. In the distance appear to be dozens of people fleeing. “I swear to God, loot, loot,” a fighter urges.

In another video, a pickup truck drives into people running away in a field. After two people in civilian clothing pause, several fighters get out of the vehicle and begin taking their belongings.

"You, come here, fuck your mother. Shut up. Come here, don't run, motherfucker. You bring what you have. Where are you putting your hand? You kill him straight away,” says a fighter.

The victim replies: “I swear to god I have nothing.”

“We are finishing them. Just finish them," a fighter says as one of them, who appears to be a teenager, shoots a man after robbing him.

A third video clip shot in a field shows RSF fighters walking among at least six dead bodies. “Civilian and you want to go, absolutely no way,” a fighter crows.

RSF members also filmed themselves with people they have captured fleeing. In one clip, scores of men are seen sat on the ground surrounded by fighters, who repeatedly call them “slaves”.

In another, fighters tell six detained men, who are in civilian clothes but identify themselves as soldiers, that they can flee. Once the men begin running, the gunmen open fire on them, downing at least three.

Trapped

In August, the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) identified over 31km of berms that the RSF built to encircle el-Fasher, creating what it called “a literal kill box”.

It warned “in the event of mass civilian exodus” that the RSF “can easily kill civilians”.

Footage emerging on Monday suggested the earth walls and trenches that accompany them were allowing the RSF to do exactly that.

Videos show vehicles that likely carried fleeing civilians deserted and occasionally aflame beside the berms, suggesting they were unable to cross the barrier and were intercepted.

In one, several fighters stand over a group of dead bodies in a trench, describing them as “our target”.

A figure that appears repeatedly is an RSF commander with long hair, a beard and a pale scarf.

One fighter addresses him as Abu Lulu, and his appearance matches Brigadier-General Al-Fatih Abdallah Idris, an RSF officer who goes by that nom de guerre.

Abu Lulu already has a history of performing war crimes on camera. A TikTok account attributed to him has 144,300 followers.

In August, he was seen in the outskirts of el-Fasher interrogating a captive about his ethnic identity, before firing seven rounds into him at close range.

He was also seen in videos from the al-Jalili oil refinery north of Khartoum in March 2024, with local media suggesting he was involved in executing prisoners. He has been accused of killing detainees and civilians in North Kordofan’s Um Sumayma and West Kordofan’s el-Fula as well.

In el-Fasher, the man who appears to be Abu Lulu is seen continuing that trend.

In one video, he stands in front of 10 men seated on the ground, who beg him not to shoot them.

“I have no time for playing,” he says. “Look, we have only two options: victory or martyrdom. The option is to fight us to the end so you die in the army base, or here.”

He then opens fire on the captives, who are then all apparently killed by Abu Lulu and his men.

The same man also appears in four other videos that appear to be in at least one different location. He is beside a berm, surrounded by bodies, with flaming vehicles to one side.

In two of the clips, he addresses a wounded man lying on the floor, who tells him he is innocent.

Another fighter tries to reassure the wounded man, describing him as a “prisoner of war” and asking the officer to have mercy.

“I won’t give him mercy,” the officer replies. “We don’t want anything from you. We have come just to kill.” He then shoots the wounded man dead.

Sudan’s war began when plans to fold the RSF into the regular military exploded into a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 13 million.

The RSF, which grew out of the Janjaweed militias that fought in the Darfur genocide 20 years ago, have been accused of targeting civilians with killings, lootings and sexual abuse throughout the war.

After mass killings of Masalit Sudanese in West Darfur in June 2023, the United States and several human rights groups accused it of committing genocide. The Sudanese Armed Forces has also been accused of war crimes.

Though it denies that it materially backs the RSF, there is mounting evidence that the UAE continues to supply the paramilitaries with weapons and mercenaries.

Hours before the fall of el-Fasher, ceasefire talks in Washington collapsed as the UAE refused to address the crippling 18-month siege on the city.

The Joint Forces, former Darfuri rebels fighting alongside the Sudanese military, said on Tuesday at least 2,000 civilians had been killed by the RSF in el-Fasher since Sunday.