Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are alleged to have committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during their seizure of El Fasher last year, according to a new report by Amnesty International. The human rights organisation's findings, released on Wednesday, detail a campaign of violence that included murder, torture, rape, enslavement, and sexual slavery, carried out as part of a widespread and systematic assault on civilians.
The report further accuses the RSF of deliberately targeting children during their attacks in El Fasher, located in North Darfur state. The city, which was the last stronghold of the Sudan armed forces in the Darfur region, fell to the paramilitary force in late October after an 18-month siege. This brutal takeover reportedly led to widespread massacres and the deaths of tens of thousands of people. An independent fact-finding mission for the UN had previously stated in February that the RSF's actions in El Fasher bore the "hallmarks of genocide" against non-Arab communities.
Amnesty International based its report on interviews with 247 individuals, including 208 survivors of the fighting in El Fasher and surrounding areas. The organisation also analysed documentary and video material, alongside satellite imagery from North Darfur. It concluded that the RSF committed war crimes between mid-2024 and late 2025, frequently targeting non-Arab civilians and employing derogatory and dehumanising language during their assaults. The destruction of towns and villages, such as Abu Zerega – home to non-Arab ethnic groups – between December 2024 and March 2025, was deemed consistent with ethnic cleansing.
Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, condemned the situation, stating: "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 the conscience of humanity." The report specifically named three RSF commanders – Major General Gedo Hamdan Ahmed Mohamed (also known as "Abu Shok"), Lieutenant Colonel Abbas Khater Bakhit, and Commander Al-Fateh Abdullah Idris (also known as "Abu Lulu") – as responsible for serious violations of international law.
The Sudanese civil war began in April 2023, stemming from a power struggle between the Sudan armed forces, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, headed by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti). This conflict, which erupted in the capital Khartoum, has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and displaced many more. Amnesty International has called for an immediate ceasefire and the urgent deployment of an international force to protect civilians, urging the international community to move beyond mere statements of concern and take concrete steps to ensure civilian safety and break the cycle of impunity.