The war in Sudan has already displaced millions and left entire communities shattered. Now, a new investigation is accusing the Rapid Support Forces of carrying out some of the conflict’s worst atrocities during its assault on el-Fasher, with survivors describing killings, torture and sexual violence that rights groups say may amount to crimes against humanity.
For the people trapped inside el-Fasher, the battle was never just about who controlled the city.
It became a fight to stay alive.
As fighting intensified around Sudan’s last major army-held city in Darfur, civilians say they were caught in a campaign marked by killings, ethnic targeting and widespread violence. A new report from Amnesty International argues that many of those attacks were not random acts of war, but part of a deliberate pattern.
Amnesty International says Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) committed crimes against humanity and carried out ethnic cleansing during its 18-month siege and assault on el-Fasher in western Darfur.
The rights group said its investigation, based on interviews with more than 200 survivors, satellite imagery and dozens of verified videos, documented killings, torture, rape, sexual slavery, forced displacement and persecution.
“The RSF’s crimes included murder, forcible transfer, imprisonment, torture, rape, sexual slavery, other forms of sexual violence, enslavement, extermination and persecution,” Amnesty said in its report.
The organisation added that the evidence it gathered “may be relevant to the crime of genocide.”
The RSF has not responded directly to Amnesty’s latest findings. However, it has previously denied accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, while acknowledging that some violations may have occurred and insisting reports of atrocities have been exaggerated.
The violence unfolded as Sudan’s civil war entered another devastating chapter.
After losing control of the capital, Khartoum, to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) last year, the RSF shifted its attention to Darfur, where it sought to capture el-Fasher, the last major city in the region still held by the army.
For many families, the siege meant months of fear, hunger and uncertainty before the violence reached their homes.
Among the testimonies collected by Amnesty was that of a 17-year-old survivor who said he was attacked in the town of Abu Zerega, south of el-Fasher.
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“They tied me up and beat me with sticks and the back of an AK-47. Then one of them approached on a camel and… just shot me in the leg,” he said.
The teenager, who now walks with crutches, said eight of his cousins were killed during the same attack, including four boys between the ages of 11 and 17.
Amnesty says many of those targeted were attacked because of their ethnic identity.
According to the report, Arab fighters linked to the RSF repeatedly targeted members of non-Arab communities, particularly civilians from the Zaghawa ethnic group, using ethnic slurs while carrying out attacks.
The organisation also documented reports of mass killings, sexual violence and attacks on children.
“Children were not collateral damage of this violence often, they were deliberately targeted and have suffered immensely,” Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said.
“They have been killed, injured, raped, abducted, and forcibly recruited on a massive scale.”
Sudan’s conflict, now in its third year, has become one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
The United Nations says the fighting has forced more than 14 million people from their homes, while about 28 million people now face acute hunger. Both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces have repeatedly denied accusations of committing war crimes.
Earlier UN assessments also warned that the violence in and around el-Fasher bore the “hallmarks of genocide.” The organisation said more than 6,000 people were reportedly killed during just three days of fighting in the city.
“It is a stain on the conscience of humanity,” Callamard said, urging an immediate ceasefire and calling for an international force to protect civilians.
Amnesty says it has identified senior RSF commanders it believes should be investigated for violations of international law and is urging the international community to ensure those responsible are held accountable.
For many survivors, however, justice remains a distant hope.
The war continues, millions remain displaced, and while new reports continue to reveal the scale of the suffering, the violence on the ground has yet to come to an end.
