When the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) swept into El-Fasher last November, the city—once the largest haven for displaced families in Darfur—was transformed overnight into a tableau of horror and devastation. The chilling speed with which the RSF overran El-Fasher marked not only the collapse of the Sudanese army’s last stronghold in the region but also the beginning of an ordeal for tens of thousands of civilians who had already endured an 18-month siege. Reports from AFP, Middle East Monitor, and humanitarian organizations paint a picture of mass killings, public sexual violence, and a desperate struggle for survival in a city now described as "full of bodies."
As the RSF offensive unfolded, the violence was both systematic and brutal. Women were raped in the open, their bodies turned into battlegrounds. Survivors who tried to flee were hunted down along the roads or detained and forced to give blood to the very men who had destroyed their homes. "I do not know if they are detained or dead. I just keep looking in shelters, schools, everywhere," Sudanese nurse Asmaa told AFP, recounting her harrowing search for missing family members after she returned to El-Fasher. Her own home was "completely destroyed," and in one neighbor’s house, she found "two bodies inside. They were still fresh."
For those who managed to escape, safety remained elusive. Asmaa herself was detained with 11 others near Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, and released only after paying a $3,000 ransom. Many others have not been as fortunate. According to the World Food Programme, more than 106,000 people have fled El-Fasher since the RSF takeover, but between 70,000 and 100,000 remain trapped inside the city as of December 2025.
The RSF’s efforts to erase evidence of their crimes were as methodical as their violence. Deep burial pits—mass graves—were dug throughout the city, a fact corroborated by satellite imagery analyzed by AFP and Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab. These images revealed grave-shaped earth disturbances that increased steadily from September onward, particularly in a 3,600-square-meter area near UNICEF headquarters. Nathaniel Raymond, the Lab’s director, confirmed that satellite analysis from late November showed "piles of objects consistent with human bodies" being moved, buried, and burned, with RSF forces present at the sites.
Inside El-Fasher, daily life has all but ceased. Once-bustling markets and streets are deserted, according to mid-December satellite images reviewed by AFP. The city, under siege for 18 months before its fall, saw its residents forced to survive on animal feed and cowhide. The UN confirmed famine in November 2025, with virtually no humanitarian aid reaching those in need. The Malam Darfur Peace and Development Organisation, one of the few groups allowed access, delivered food and blankets on December 2 but found severe shortages of water, food, and medicine.
The violence and deprivation have left a visible toll. A Red Crescent volunteer, speaking anonymously to AFP from within El-Fasher, described entering the city on December 4 to find "bodies scattered" across streets and buildings, with new corpses reported daily. Roads are littered with mines, and burned bodies are a common sight. The World Food Programme summed up the situation as "beyond horrific."
Efforts to flee the city are fraught with danger. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams in the nearby town of Tawila have received numerous reports of kidnappings inside El-Fasher and along escape routes. "The RSF wants to keep people inside," MSF emergency coordinator Myriam Laaroussi told AFP, noting that many attempting to leave are forced back. Those who do make it out recount stories of families paying ransoms, men tortured or shot, parents killed, and children left unaccompanied.
The RSF, for its part, has dismissed these accusations as "fabricated narratives," claiming to be investigating and seeking to broadcast a different image of El-Fasher under their rule. In videos distributed by the militia, RSF leaders boast of "reconstruction" campaigns, a new police station, and inspections of the city’s water plant, urging residents to resume "normal" life. Yet, for the thousands still trapped and the tens of thousands displaced, such claims ring hollow against the overwhelming evidence of destruction and loss.
The roots of the RSF run deep in Sudan’s troubled history. The militia emerged from the 2013 reorganization of the infamous Janjaweed, a group notorious for its role in the Darfur conflict of the early 2000s. The Sudanese parliament formally legitimized the RSF’s operations in 2017, ostensibly to assist government counterinsurgency efforts in Darfur and South Kordofan. Since then, the RSF has been implicated in a litany of atrocities: village devastation, protester killings, sexual assaults, mass murders, illegal imprisonments, attacks on medical and religious sites, aggression toward media, ethnically motivated violence, and the use of child soldiers.
The latest conflict, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese National Army and the RSF—mainly sponsored by the United Arab Emirates—has had catastrophic consequences. Published figures indicate thousands of deaths and millions of people forced from their homes. The United Nations has labeled Sudan the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and the scars of violence are everywhere, especially in Darfur.
In response, the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on several entities associated with the RSF in July 2023, freezing their assets. However, the militia’s attacks and violations against civilians continued unabated. Recent weeks have seen the RSF conduct drone strikes against civilian infrastructure nationwide, including hospitals, airports, oil facilities, telecom and internet networks, water dams, and power plants. The impact on civilian life has been devastating, exacerbating an already dire situation.
Calls are now mounting for the UK to go further by proscribing the RSF as a terrorist organization. Under the Terrorism Act 2000, terrorism is defined as the use of threats to intimidate the public or influence government for political, religious, or ideological purposes—a definition that, according to Middle East Monitor, fits the RSF’s actions precisely. Proscription would criminalize membership and support, freeze assets, and severely damage the militia’s public image. It would also disrupt UK-based RSF recruitment and propaganda networks, which could otherwise pose risks to the UK itself.
Yet, as advocates of proscription stress, any such move must be carefully paired with safeguards to protect humanitarian aid, independent journalism, human rights work, and the flow of personal remittances. The aim, they argue, is to limit the RSF’s power without further endangering civilians living under its control.
The suffering in El-Fasher and across Darfur is a stark reminder of the consequences when the world turns away. As the conflict grinds on, the city’s empty streets and mass graves stand as silent witnesses to a catastrophe that, for now, shows no sign of ending.
