Sudan's RSF conducting campaign to cover up mass atrocities in el-Fasher

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is engaging in a campaign to destroy evidence of mass killings in the North Darfur city of el-Fasher, according to a new report from Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL). 

The RSF took total control of el-Fasher from the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its Joint Forces allies on 26 October after over 500 days of siege. 

Since then, according to the new report and multiple local eyewitnesses who have spoken to Middle East Eye, the RSF has killed fleeing civilians and carried out door-to-door killings across el-Fasher. Fighters also took blood from civilians trying to escape the city.

At the same time, “a systematic multi-week campaign to destroy evidence of its widespread mass killings through burial, burning, and removal of human remains on a mass scale” has been carried out by the RSF, according to the HRL report. 

The analysis shows that the paramilitary group has most likely buried or burned tens of thousands of bodies since seizing el-Fasher. The UN’s World Food Programme says there are “anywhere between 70,000 and 100,000 people potentially remaining trapped inside” el-Fasher.  

The Yale research team reached its conclusions based on satellite imagery covering an approximately 700 square km area of the city and surrounding areas enclosed by the ring of earthen wall – the berm – constructed first by the SAF then continued and completed by the RSF.

'Systematic mass killing'

The US monitor said it “assesses to high confidence” that the RSF “engaged in widespread and systematic mass killing in el-Fasher”, including of civilians attempting to flee the city and those seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighbourhood.

At the beginning of November, Mohamed Hassan, from el-Fasher, told MEE: “I have seen the bodies in Daraja Oula, the area where most civilians were securing themselves in the last days before the city fell into the hands of the RSF. The RSF entered the neighbourhood one by one and fired on everybody.”  

“In one of the streets they brought dozens of families outside the houses,” Hassan said.  “They separated the men from the women and children. They lashed and insulted the women verbally and they fired on the men randomly. If they decided that you are a SAF or Joint Forces soldier, they will kill you immediately.”

In 150 different places throughout el-Fasher and surrounding areas, satellite imagery collected between 26 October and 1 November showed “clusters of objects consistent with human remains”.

Yale's HRL then monitored these clusters up until 28 November, observing changes in the size at 108 out of 150 of them, including 57 that were no longer visible, implying the removal of bodies. 

'I have seen the bodies in Daraja Oula... The RSF entered the neighbourhood one by one and fired on everybody'

- Mohamed Hassan, el-Fasher resident

The monitor said that it could not “determine to a high confidence standard that all earth disturbances described in this report are mass graves”. But it said “objects consistent with the dimensions of human remains” were visible and then covered at a site near el-Fasher’s former children’s hospital, which eyewitnesses have said was used as an RSF detention site.

The satellite imagery analysed by Yale's HRL showed “38 instances of reddish discoloration consistent with blood or other bodily fluids,” meaning that the blood spilled in el-Fasher can still be seen from space.

Further evidence ties the RSF, which is supported by the United Arab Emirates – a charge Abu Dhabi denies despite mounting evidence - to the violence documented in the report. A range of vehicles used by the RSF were observed near at least 31 of the clusters.

The satellite imagery reported by Yale's HRL also shows evidence of at least 20 instances of burning objects, as well as mass killings at detention sites and military installations. 

Humanitarian crisis

The war in Sudan began in April 2023 and has led to what the United Nations calls the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Over 14 million Sudanese have been forced to leave their homes and, while no official or precise death toll exists, many aid agencies believe the figure is in the hundreds of thousands.

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Over the weekend, Sudan’s Forensic Medicine Authority reported that it had overseen the collection, transportation and burial of 15,000 bodies from neighbourhoods and schools across Khartoum state. The bodies had been buried hastily by civilians or dumped in mass graves by the RSF.

Atrocities have been committed by both sides in the war, but the RSF has been credibly and widely accused of committing genocide in Darfur, where it has primarily been targeting non-Arab groups.

The mass murder and rape of civilians in the aftermath of the capture of el-Fasher prompted an international backlash and focused attention on the RSF’s main supporter, the UAE, which has embarked on a focused lobbying campaign to avoid facing consequences for its patronage.

On Monday, Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan met Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in Riyadh.

In the aftermath of the fall of el-Fasher, the Saudi crown prince lobbied US President Donald Trump over the UAE's role in Sudan. Egypt and Turkey also stepped up their military support for the SAF.

The international outcry around el-Fasher did force RSF chief General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, to declare an investigation into what he called violations committed by his soldiers during the capture of el-Fasher.