The fall of el-Fasher, a city in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region, has unleashed a new wave of horror in a conflict already marked by unspeakable brutality. Over the past week, eyewitness accounts, aid organizations, and United Nations officials have painted a devastating picture of mass killings, abductions, and a humanitarian crisis deepening by the hour as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) tightened their grip on the region.
According to Reuters, fighters riding camels rounded up hundreds of men near el-Fasher over the weekend, bringing them to a reservoir and shouting racial slurs before opening fire. Alkheir Ismail, one of the few survivors, recounted in a video interview, “He told them, ‘Don’t kill him.’ Even after they killed everyone else—my friends and everyone else.” Ismail said he was spared because one of the captors recognized him from school, but the rest of the group was executed. He and other witnesses described how those fleeing el-Fasher were gathered in nearby villages, with men separated from women and removed—often never to be seen again.
The United Nations human rights office, in a statement released on October 31, 2025, estimated that hundreds of civilians and unarmed fighters may have been executed during the RSF’s capture of the city. Such killings, if confirmed, would constitute war crimes. The RSF, however, has denied these abuses, claiming that men were taken for interrogation rather than killed, and accusing its enemies of fabricating reports to cover up their own defeat.
The horror reached a new low on Tuesday, October 28, when gunmen attacked the Saudi Hospital in el-Fasher. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that at least 460 people were killed in several waves of violence: doctors and nurses were abducted, staff and patients gunned down, and those seeking shelter slaughtered. Christian Lindmeier, WHO spokesman, told a U.N. briefing in Geneva, “At first, the fighters came and abducted a number of doctors and nurses, and at least six are still being held... They later returned and started killing. They came a third time and finished off what was still standing, including other people sheltering in the hospital.” The RSF has denied responsibility, instead posting a video online showing what it claimed were patients being cared for at the hospital, but many details remain unverified amid the communications blackout in the city.
The scale of the violence and displacement is staggering. The U.N. migration agency estimates that more than 62,000 people fled el-Fasher between Sunday and Wednesday, with only around 5,000 making it to a refugee camp in Tawila, some 40 miles away. Aid organizations fear for the fate of tens of thousands more who remain unaccounted for. The Norwegian Refugee Council, which manages the camp, reported that people are arriving with broken limbs, untreated wounds, and severe malnutrition—some injuries dating back months. Of the 70 children under five who arrived in Tawila on Monday, October 27, 40 were severely malnourished, according to Doctors Without Borders.
Among the survivors is 70-year-old Fatima Abdulrahim, who fled el-Fasher with her grandchildren just days before the city fell. She described to the Associated Press a harrowing five-day journey, hiding in trenches and dodging bullets. “We ran on the streets, hiding for ten minutes behind the berm, then charging out, running until we made it out,” she said. “Thirst almost killed us.” Along the way, she witnessed militiamen shoot young men trying to bring food into the city. “The people dead on the streets were countless,” Abdulrahim recalled. “I kept covering the eyes of the little ones so they don’t see.”
Other witnesses and aid workers have corroborated reports of men being separated from women and children, then taken away or killed. Tahani Hassan, a former hospital cleaner, told Reuters that after her brother-in-law and uncle were killed by stray bullets, she and her family were apprehended by RSF fighters. “They hit us hard. They threw our clothes on the ground. Even I, as a woman, was searched,” she said, adding that their food and water was also spilled. In Garney, where they eventually arrived, the fighters separated the men—most of whom she never saw again. “We can’t say they are alive, because of how they treated us,” Hassan said. “If they don’t kill you, the hunger will kill you, the thirst will kill you.”
Doctors Without Borders confirmed that survivors reported being held for ransom, with sums ranging from 5 million to 30 million Sudanese pounds (about $8,000 to $50,000). The RSF’s control over el-Fasher marks a turning point in Sudan’s two-and-a-half-year civil war, entrenching the division of a country already fractured by decades of conflict and the secession of South Sudan in 2011.
El-Fasher was the Sudanese military’s last bastion in Darfur, and its fall secures RSF control over most of the vast western region. The RSF, largely composed of fighters from the Arab Janjaweed militia, has a notorious history: it was accused of carrying out a government-backed genocidal campaign in Darfur in the 2000s, in which an estimated 300,000 people were killed. In the current war, which began in 2023, the RSF and allied militias have been accused of repeated mass killings and sexual violence, often targeting civilians of Central and East African ethnicities.
The humanitarian toll is catastrophic. The war has already killed more than 40,000 people, according to U.N. figures, though aid groups believe the real number could be much higher. Over 14 million people have been displaced, fueling outbreaks of disease and famine—Darfur itself is a region the size of Spain, now gripped by hunger and desperation. At least 450 people have been admitted to Tawila hospital with severe malnutrition and injuries, some the result of sexual violence. Communications remain down in el-Fasher, and most aid groups have been forced out, leaving the fate of tens of thousands uncertain.
RSF head Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo addressed the violence in a speech on Wednesday, October 29, calling on his fighters to protect civilians and ordering the release of detainees. He appeared to acknowledge reports of detentions, but the RSF continues to deny systematic abuses, instead blaming the Sudanese military and its allies for exaggerating the scale of violence.
As the dust settles over el-Fasher, the world is left grappling with the aftermath of yet another massacre in Darfur. The International Criminal Court is investigating the RSF for genocide in other parts of the region, and the United States has already accused the group of atrocities. For the survivors—many of whom are women, children, and the elderly—the struggle is far from over. Hunger, thirst, and the threat of further violence haunt their every step.
While the RSF’s victory in el-Fasher may have shifted the balance of power in Sudan’s civil war, it has come at a staggering human cost. The fate of those still missing, and the possibility of justice for the victims, remain uncertain as the world watches Darfur’s tragedy unfold once again.