If you have been following the news cycle over the last few months, you might have noticed a terrifying gap. While the world’s attention bounces between various geopolitical crises, a catastrophe of biblical proportions has unfolded in western Sudan, largely in the dark. We are witnessing the systematic erasure of a city, a culture, and a people.
I am writing this because we need to talk about El Fasher.
For 18 months, this city—the capital of North Darfur and home to nearly 2 million people at its peak—held out against a suffocating siege. It was the last stronghold of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the Darfur region, a final sanctuary for displaced families fleeing violence elsewhere. But on October 26, 2025, El Fasher fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
What has happened since that date is not just "war." It is not "inter-communal violence" or "clashes." It is a methodical, documented campaign of mass slaughter that the UN Human Rights Office has described as being "like a scene out of a horror movie.",
Today, I want to walk you through exactly what has happened, the forensic evidence that proves it, and why the international community’s failure to act is a stain on our collective conscience.
The Fall: A Timeline of Terror
To understand the magnitude of this tragedy, we have to look at the timeline. For over 500 days, El Fasher was strangled. The RSF, a paramilitary group with roots in the Janjaweed militias that terrorised Darfur in the early 2000s, encircled the city, cutting off food, water, and medicine.,
The breaking point came in late October 2025. After months of attrition, the SAF’s 6th Infantry Division collapsed. On October 26, the RSF breached the city's defences. What followed was not a military occupation, but a purge.
According to a harrowing report released by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) just a few days ago, RSF fighters and their allied Arab militias unleashed a wave of violence that is difficult to comprehend. In the first three days alone—just 72 hours—more than 6,000 people were documented as killed.
Let that sink in. Two thousand people a day.
Witnesses have described scenes of apocalyptic brutality. In one specific incident at El Fasher University, RSF fighters used heavy weapons to open fire on the Al-Rashid dormitory, where 1,000 civilians were sheltering. Survivors reported seeing "bodies thrown into the air" by the impact of the heavy munitions. Approximately 500 people died in that single attack.
This wasn't collateral damage. These were executions. Men and boys, particularly those from the Zaghawa and other non-Arab communities, were hunted down. If you were a young man under 50, you were a target. If you were accused of "collaboration"—often simply based on your ethnicity—you were executed.
The Forensic Proof: Watching Genocide from Space
In the age of modern warfare, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hide mass atrocities. While the RSF cut telecommunications to plunge the city into a digital blackout, they could not hide from satellites.
The Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at the Yale School of Public Health has been conducting a forensic analysis of satellite imagery over El Fasher. Their findings are chilling. Between late October and November 2025, analysts identified at least 150 clusters of objects consistent with human remains scattered across the city.
But the satellite images revealed something even more disturbing: the ground itself was stained. The imagery picked up "reddish ground discolouration" near these clusters of bodies. Over time, these stains turned brown—a chemical process consistent with the oxidation of massive amounts of blood.
We are literally watching the blood of a city stain the earth from space.
Perhaps most damning is the evidence of a cover-up. The RSF knows the world is watching, or at least that the satellites are recording. The Yale researchers found that by late November, nearly 40% of these body clusters had vanished. They didn't just disappear; they were replaced by signs of earth disturbances, incineration pits, and the presence of white substances likely used to chemically neutralise biological remains.
This suggests a highly organised, systematic campaign to destroy evidence. They are burning bodies. They are dumping them in mass graves near the Children’s Hospital, which was converted into a detention centre where detainees faced torture and starvation., This is not the chaotic violence of a disorganised militia; this is the calculated work of a force attempting to erase its crimes before the international community can build a case.
The "Abulda" and Ethnic Cleansing
We must be clear about who is dying and why. This violence is not random. It is targeted.
The RSF and their allied militias are operating on an ideology of Arab supremacism. They use specific slurs to dehumanise their victims. One term that has surfaced repeatedly in witness testimonies is "Abulda." This label is used to brand non-Arab civilians—specifically the Zaghawa, Fur, and Masalit—as supporters of the army. It is a death sentence.
In January 2026, just last month, we saw this ethnic targeting continue in the village of Al-Gamara. RSF forces attacked the village, setting fire to homes and specifically targeting Black civilians for beatings and execution. This mirrors the "Masalit genocide" we witnessed in El Geneina in 2023. The goal is clear: to depopulate these areas of their indigenous communities and replace them with a new political and demographic reality.
Sexual Violence as a Weapon
It is impossible to write about this conflict without addressing the war being waged on the bodies of women and girls. The reports coming out of El Fasher are nauseating.
Sexual violence is being used systematically as a weapon of war. Survivors have recounted patterns of gang rape and sexual slavery. Women fleeing the city are subjected to "invasive body searches" at checkpoints, which are often preludes to sexual assault.,
The SIHA Network (Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa) has documented cases where women and girls are abducted for ransom. Families are receiving phone calls from RSF soldiers demanding payment for the release of their daughters. In many cases, even after payment, the women are not returned, or they are returned having suffered unimaginable trauma.
This is a strategy of subjugation. By terrorising women, the RSF is attempting to break the spirit of the communities they are trying to displace. It is a crime against humanity occurring in real-time.
The Weaponisation of Hunger
If the bullets and the shelling don't kill you, the hunger might.
Sudan has now become the world’s hungriest country. As of February 2026, famine has been officially confirmed in parts of North Darfur, specifically in Um Baru and Kernoi. This is not a famine caused by drought or crop failure. It is a man-made famine, engineered by siege and blockade.
By encircling cities like El Fasher and cutting off trade routes, the RSF has weaponised starvation. In the Zamzam IDP camp, which hosts hundreds of thousands of people, the situation is catastrophic. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has warned that more than half a million people are at imminent risk of starvation.
For the most vulnerable, the situation is a death sentence. A recent investigation revealed a "disability tax" in the camps. Disabled individuals, unable to navigate the rugged terrain or stand in chaotic food lines, are forced to sell portions of their meagre rations just to pay able-bodied people to bring them supplies. Many were forced to abandon wheelchairs and prosthetics during their flight from El Fasher, leaving them completely immobilised in the camps.
The Geopolitics of Indifference
So, where is the world? Why isn't this on the front page of every newspaper?
The sad reality is that the war in Sudan has become a proxy battleground for external powers, complicating the diplomatic response. The RSF is not fighting alone. There is credible evidence and widespread accusations that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is providing military support to the RSF, funnelling weapons through Amdjarass in Chad under the guise of humanitarian aid.
These weapons—advanced drones, anti-aircraft missiles, and howitzers—are what allowed the RSF to break the siege of El Fasher. The SAF, for its part, has turned to powers like Iran and Russia for support, further internationalising the conflict.
Meanwhile, the international legal system seems paralysed. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has stated clearly that war crimes are being committed. In a briefing to the UN Security Council just last month, the ICC Deputy Prosecutor described the situation as "collective torture." Yet, in a shocking display of diplomatic dysfunction, the US government reportedly denied a visa to the ICC Deputy Prosecutor, preventing her from briefing the Security Council in person.
The United States has imposed sanctions on RSF leaders, including Hemedti, and officially determined that the RSF is committing genocide. But sanctions alone are not stopping the flow of weapons. The UN arms embargo is being flouted openly. The "Quad" (US, UK, Saudi Arabia, UAE) mediation efforts have largely failed, with the RSF using ceasefire talks as a cover to consolidate their military gains.
The "Government of Peace and Unity"?
Perhaps the most surreal aspect of this tragedy is the RSF's attempt to legitimise its conquest. Having seized control of almost all of Darfur, the RSF has established a parallel administration called the "Government of Peace and Unity."
They are projecting an image of statehood. They are policing the streets, collecting taxes, and managing trade. But this is a governance built on mass graves. It is a "tax on identity," where non-Arab populations are excluded, exploited, or eliminated. The establishment of this parallel government in Nyala suggests that Sudan is fracturing into two distinct entities—a de facto partition that may become permanent if the SAF cannot regain a foothold in the west.
What Comes Next?
We are standing at a precipice. The fall of El Fasher was not the end; it was the beginning of a new, darker phase. The RSF is now pushing into Kordofan, besieging cities like El Obeid and Babanusa. If they secure these areas, they will effectively control the western half of Sudan and the vital oil infrastructure at Heglig.
The atrocities we saw in El Fasher—the mass executions, the burning of bodies, the rape camps—will be repeated in every town that falls, unless the dynamic changes.
We need to be clear about what is required:
- A Genuine Arms Embargo: The UN Security Council must enforce the arms embargo on Darfur and expand it to all of Sudan. We must name and shame the states supplying these weapons.
- Immediate Intervention: We need a UN-authorised protection force to secure humanitarian corridors. The "wait and see" approach is a death sentence for the 25 million Sudanese facing hunger.
- Accountability: The ICC needs the full backing of the international community to issue arrest warrants and pursue the architects of this genocide.
The people of El Fasher were left to die in the dark. We cannot let their deaths be in vain. We cannot let the erasure of their history, their bodies, and their city go unmarked.
The silence is deafening. It is time to scream.
#KeepEyesOnSudan #ElFasher #SudanGenocide
Sources:
Community Insights