Sudan’s RSF committed crimes against humanity in El Fasher, Amnesty says

Rapid Support Forces in El-Fasher in October, when it captured El Fasher, the last stronghold of the Sudan armed forces in Darfur. Photograph: Rapid Support Forces (RSF)/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Rapid Support Forces in El-Fasher in October, when it captured El Fasher, the last stronghold of the Sudan armed forces in Darfur. Photograph: Rapid Support Forces (RSF)/AFP/Getty Images Sudan’s RSF committed crimes against humanity in El Fasher, Amnesty says Report accuses paramilitary force of crimes including ethnic cleansing in systemic campaign against civilians The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during its seizure of El Fasher last year, Amnesty International has alleged. Many of the crimes, including murder, torture, rape, enslavement and sexual slavery, were carried out as part of a widespread and systematic attack against civilians and amounted to crimes against humanity, the human rights organisation said in a report released on Wednesday. In the report, Amnesty also accused the RSF of deliberately targeting children during attacks in the city in North Darfur state. In late October, the paramilitary force captured El Fasher, the last stronghold of the Sudan armed forces in the Darfur region, after an 18-month siege. The brutal takeover was marked by widespread massacres, with tens of thousands of people killed . A graphic showing El Fasher In February, an independent fact-finding mission for the UN said the RSF’s seizure of El Fasher showed “hallmarks of genocide” against non-Arab communities. For the report, Amnesty interviewed 247 people, including 208 survivors of the fighting in the city and surrounding areas. It also analysed documentary and video material, and carried out analysis of satellite imagery from North Darfur. Amnesty concluded that the RSF had committed war crimes in El Fasher and surrounding areas between mid-2024 and late 2025. It found the paramilitary force had often targeted non-Arab civilians and repeatedly used derogatory and dehumanising language in attacks. The RSF committed the crime against humanity of persecution on the basis of ethnicity, Amnesty concluded. View image in fullscreen Satellite imagery shows the destruction in El Fasher. Photograph: Maxar/DigitalGlobe/Getty Images The human rights organisation said RSF’s destruction of towns and villages between December 2024 and March 2025 including Abu Zerega, which is populated by non-Arab ethnic groups, was consistent with ethnic cleansing. The report said the abuses carried out by the paramilitary force had orphaned countless children and displaced hundreds of thousands of others, exposing them to death and injury during attacks or while fleeing. Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International, said : “The war in Sudan is a war on civilians. The world was warned of the horrors that civilians in El Fasher confronted as the RSF laid siege to the city. It is a stain on