The city of el-Fasher, once a final stronghold for Sudan’s army in the war-torn Darfur region, has fallen into the hands of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), marking a grim new chapter in Sudan’s ongoing crisis. With the RSF’s capture of el-Fasher after an 18-month siege, the world’s attention has again been drawn to the worsening humanitarian disaster unfolding in Africa’s third-largest country. The United Nations, humanitarian organizations, and foreign governments are sounding the alarm over what they describe as mass killings, ethnic violence, and a catastrophe of historic proportions.
According to BBC News and other sources, the RSF’s seizure of el-Fasher this week completed their control over the entire Darfur region, pushing the Sudanese army out of its last remaining foothold there. This victory for the RSF, led by General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo—known as Hemedti—has not come without a devastating toll. The broader conflict between the RSF and the Sudanese army has killed over 40,000 people and displaced more than 14 million, making it the world’s worst humanitarian crisis by current estimates.
The RSF’s roots trace back to the notorious Janjaweed militia, which gained infamy in the early 2000s for its brutal campaign against non-Arab tribes and rebels in Darfur. Formed in 2013, the RSF has since evolved into a powerful paramilitary force, shaping Sudanese politics and, now, controlling vast swathes of its territory. El-Fasher’s fall raises fears that Sudan, already split once when South Sudan gained independence in 2011 after decades of civil war, could fracture again along regional and ethnic lines.
What happened in el-Fasher has shocked the world. Reports emerged almost immediately of mass killings in the city, particularly at the Saudi Hospital, the last partially functioning medical facility there. The United Nations World Health Organization stated it was “appalled and deeply shocked” by accounts that more than 460 civilians—including patients and their companions—were shot dead on hospital grounds. Dr. Mohamad Faisal, a spokesperson for the Sudan Doctors Network in the UK, told the BBC, “What we have seen is actually absolutely horrific. The RSF soldiers went into the wards killing inpatients as well as going to the outpatient areas and killing the people who are waiting to be seen in the clinics—so many people.” He estimated that 450 people were killed at the hospital alone, with 200 inpatients and 250 outpatients or visitors among the dead.
BBC Verify, the broadcaster’s investigative unit, analyzed video footage from el-Fasher and confirmed that RSF soldiers executed unarmed people in the city. One particularly chilling video, geolocated to Shala Prison on the outskirts of el-Fasher, showed RSF fighters arresting a man known online as Abu Lulu, who was filmed shooting unarmed civilians. The RSF released this footage in an apparent attempt to show accountability, claiming the arrest demonstrated their commitment to investigating violations.
General Dagalo, the RSF commander, responded to the mounting outrage by promising an investigation. “I am sorry for the disaster that has befallen the people of el-Fasher,” he said, acknowledging that there had been violations by his forces, which would be investigated by a committee now in the city. Yet, as BBC News pointed out, similar promises in the past—such as after a massacre in el-Geneina in 2023—have not led to meaningful accountability. The United Nations’ top humanitarian official, Tom Fletcher, addressed the UN Security Council with a blunt message: “There must be accountability for those carrying out the killing and the sexual violence. For those giving the orders. And those providing the weapons should consider their responsibility.”
The Security Council swiftly condemned the assault on el-Fasher, calling for safe passage for civilians trying to flee and reiterating that it will not recognize any RSF-led parallel government. The council’s statement echoed demands from the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, which called for humanitarian corridors and immediate investigations into the atrocities.
The suffering in el-Fasher is staggering. Roughly 250,000 people, many from non-Arab communities, found themselves trapped during the RSF’s siege, enduring starvation, bombardment, and violence. According to Caroline Bouvard from the aid group Solidarités International, about 5,000 people managed to escape to Tawila, 60 kilometers west of el-Fasher, but most arrived traumatized, weak, and often victims of abuse and gender-based violence along the way. “We’ve had many confirmations of rapes and gender-based violence,” Bouvard told BBC Newsday, adding that summary executions were also confirmed by their teams.
The RSF has denied widespread allegations that the killings in el-Fasher are ethnically motivated or that they follow a pattern of targeting non-Arab populations, despite mounting evidence and international concern. A spokesman for the group also denied accusations that RSF fighters killed more than 400 people at the hospital, insisting that civilians had fled and no hospitals were operational when they took the city. Still, analysts from the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab say satellite images showing groups of bodies on hospital grounds corroborate witness accounts.
The international community’s response has been swift but, so far, largely rhetorical. British Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty called the suffering “unconscionable, often based on ethnicity, women and girls facing sexual and gender-based violence, and there is evidence mounting of defenceless civilians being executed and tortured.” Activists and observers are also increasing pressure on the United Arab Emirates, which is widely accused of providing military support to the RSF—a charge the UAE denies, though UN reports have cited evidence to the contrary.
El-Fasher’s capture has reinforced a geographic split in Sudan: the RSF now dominates western Sudan and much of neighboring Kordofan to the south, while the army holds the capital Khartoum and regions along the Red Sea. The two factions, once allies after seizing power together in a 2021 coup, fell out over an internationally backed plan to transition to civilian rule. That rift has now erupted into a full-blown civil war, with civilians paying the heaviest price.
Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, chair of the African Union’s panel on Sudan, described the situation as “hell on Earth” for the people of el-Fasher and its surroundings. He argued, “There can be no military solution to the Sudanese crisis… We need now to work with the Sudanese to tackle the root causes of their problem, which they themselves admit has to do with exclusion. Failure to manage diversity in Sudan has been at the heart of the recurrent crisis the country has experienced since its independence in 1956.”
With international pressure mounting and Sudan’s humanitarian crisis deepening, the world watches anxiously to see whether promises of investigations and calls for accountability will translate into real change—or if Sudan’s suffering will continue, largely unheeded, as the country edges closer to another tragic split.
