Reports of ethnically motivated mass killings and other atrocities are emerging from El Fasher after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took control of the city in Sudan’s western Darfur region over the weekend.
Video released by local activists showed a fighter known for executing civilians in RSF-controlled areas shooting a group of unarmed civilians sitting on the ground at point-blank range.
Different footage shared by pro-democracy activists purportedly showed dozens of people lying dead on the ground alongside burnt-out vehicles. The footage has 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.
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The claim could not be verified but Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, 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 a systematic and intentional process of ethnic cleansing of Fur, Zaghawa, and Berti Indigenous non-Arab communities through forced displacement and summary execution”. This included what appeared to be “door-to-door clearance operations” in the city, it said.
The RSF said on Sunday it had seized control of the army’s main base in the city and released a statement saying it had “extended control over the city of El Fasher from the grip of mercenaries and militias”.
The Sudanese army chief, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said on Monday that his forces had withdrawn from El Fasher “to a safer location”, acknowledging the loss of the city.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 engaged in a bloody civil war with the army since April 2023 after a power struggle between the two sides. More than 150,000 people have been killed and more than 14 million displaced due to the fighting.
Fears had been mounting in recent weeks for the safety of tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the city by an 18-month RSF siege.
The UN human rights commissioner , 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 multiple alarming reports that the Rapid Support Forces are carrying out atrocities, including summary executions”.
The UN Human Rights Office said there were reports of “summary execution of civilians trying to flee, with indications of ethnic motivations for killings”, as well as videos showing “dozens of unarmed men being shot or lying dead, surrounded by RSF fighters who accuse them of being [Sudanese army] fighters”.
News agencies have been unable to contact civilians in the city, where the Sudanese Journalists’ Syndicate says communications, including satellite networks, have been cut off by a media blackout.
Tánaiste Simon Harris said he was “horrified by alarming reports” from El Fasher.
“I call on the RSF to take action urgently to end these criminal acts,” he said. “All warring parties in Sudan must adhere to their commitments and obligations to protect civilians and to enable humanitarian access in line with international humanitarian law.”
He added that Ireland had provided €14m in humanitarian support to people in Sudan and refugees in neighbouring countries, which “will be provided as long as the suffering of the Sudanese people continues”.
According to the UN, more than 1 million people have fled El Fasher since the start of the war and about 260,000 civilians, half of them children, remain trapped without aid. Many have resorted to eating animal fodder.
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 turning point in the war.
The army is now excluded from a third of Sudanese territory, a development that experts say raises the possibility the country could face partition. –Guardian/agencies
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