El-Fasher survivors report ongoing detentions
One year after the RSF captured the North Darfur capital, residents describe continued violence, mass graves, and a persistent communications blackout.
By Javier Sanders ·
A woman identified as Hala returned to el-Fasher three weeks ago to retrieve her birth certificate and ID. She told the campaign group Avaaz that Rapid Support Forces fighters questioned her upon arrival and issued a handwritten entry permit. The following day, soldiers addressed her in the street using abusive language. Hala said she was spared physical attack only because other civilians were present. She has since returned to the Tawila refugee camp and says she will not go back to the city.
The conflict intensified on 26 October 2025. The RSF launched a final offensive after a siege that lasted more than 500 days. Researchers at Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab stated that the speed and scale of the subsequent killing compared to the Rwandan genocide. The UAE, which is accused of backing the RSF, continues to deny involvement in the war that began in April 2023.
Survivors described executions, rapes, and the separation of families. Mohamed Hassan, a resident of el-Fasher, said fighters targeted men they judged to be soldiers of the Sudanese Armed Forces or its allied Joint Forces. Close to 500 people were killed at the Saudi Maternity Hospital, where displaced families and medical staff had sheltered. UN investigators documented mass killings at el-Fasher University and on roads leading out of the city.
Monitoring groups counted at least 6,000 dead in the first 72 hours of the assault using satellite imagery. Approximately 260,000 people remained inside the city when the offensive began. The RSF maintains a communications blackout and has barred human rights investigators from entering. This week, volunteers in the North Kordofan town of Bara recovered more than 600 bodies from 200 mass graves. Witnesses said the RSF killed most of the civilians during the October offensive.
Yale researchers identified 150 clusters of objects consistent with human remains between 26 October and 28 November 2025. Twenty of these clusters showed signs of burning. Fifty-seven clusters vanished entirely within four weeks. RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, announced an investigation into violations by his soldiers. A UN team that entered the city in December called it a crime scene. One in six people screened during that visit had severe acute malnutrition.
Conditions during the siege were severe. A doctor who worked inside an el-Fasher hospital for nearly two years reported that generators ran for only two hours a night. Emergency surgery was performed using phone flashlights. The World Food Programme stated that residents survived on animal fodder and food waste. In February, a UN fact-finding mission concluded that the RSF committed acts of genocide in el-Fasher.
Displacement continues in the region. Tawila now hosts around 800,000 people, most from el-Fasher. Survivors report that the RSF still detains fleeing men and demands ransoms of up to $3,000. Khadijah, an elderly woman originally from el-Geneina, said she lives under a tree on a farm with little food and no shelter. Mudathir Mohammed Diqourni of an el-Fasher resistance committee said RSF militias are destroying farms and killing farmers in South and Central Darfur.
The UN mission found reasonable grounds to believe that private companies and recruiters based in the UAE routed weapons through Chad, southeastern Libya, and Bosaso in Somalia. Mona Rishmawi, a member of the mission, said the supplies included weapons, drone-related equipment, logistical help, and personnel. The United States remains the UAE's top weapons supplier, and British weaponry has been found on Sudanese battlefields.
