In the heart of Sudan’s Darfur region, the city of El Fasher has become the latest epicenter of a humanitarian catastrophe that has shocked the world. After more than eighteen months under siege, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of El Fasher in late October 2025, triggering a fresh wave of violence, mass displacement, and international outrage. The city’s fall, described by many as a turning point in Sudan’s ongoing civil war, has left aid workers, survivors, and global leaders grappling with the scale of devastation and the grim implications for the region’s future.
For years, Darfur has been synonymous with conflict and hardship. Yet, according to reports from The Associated Press and Al Jazeera English, the crisis escalated dramatically in April 2023 when the RSF—once a government-aligned militia—turned against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), plunging the country into a brutal civil war. The RSF laid siege to El Fasher, North Darfur’s capital, cutting off food, medicine, and safe passage for civilians. As the siege dragged on, conditions inside the city deteriorated rapidly. Humanitarian deliveries ground to a halt, and thousands found themselves trapped in increasingly desperate circumstances.
The RSF’s final assault on El Fasher came after months of encirclement. Witnesses told The Associated Press that as the city fell, RSF fighters went door to door, beating and shooting residents—including women and children. The World Health Organization reported that 460 people were killed in a single hospital alone, while the Sudan Doctors Network put the death toll in the thousands, calling the situation “a true genocide.” Roads out of the city, according to aid workers cited by the AP, were “littered with bodies.”
Satellite imagery analyzed by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab added chilling visual evidence to the accounts pouring in from the ground. The images, taken on October 27 and 28, 2025, revealed clusters of objects measuring between 1.3 and 2 meters—consistent with human bodies—lying near RSF vehicles and roadblocks. Reddish discolorations, interpreted as possible blood-soaked earth, were visible where no such markings had appeared before. “At least five of the six groupings have reddish discoloration on the ground nearby,” the Yale report stated, further noting the presence of RSF technical vehicles at these sites. The report cautioned that while satellite data alone cannot definitively identify the objects or the stains, the patterns observed “may be consistent with war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Communications in and around El Fasher have been severely disrupted, making it nearly impossible for aid agencies and journalists to assess the full extent of the devastation. Still, the trickle of survivors arriving in Tawila—a town about 60 kilometers west of El Fasher and outside RSF control—painted a grim picture. “The number of people who made it to Tawila is very small and that should be a concern for all of us,” said Malthide Vu, advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which manages a camp for the displaced there. “Where are the others? That tells the horror of the journey.”
International response has been swift and pointed. On October 29, 2025, both Republican and Democratic U.S. senators called for a robust reaction from the Trump administration. Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged the U.S. to officially designate the RSF as a foreign terrorist organization. “The horrors in Darfur’s El-Fasher were no accident — they were the RSF's plan all along. The RSF has waged terror and committed unspeakable atrocities, genocide among them, against the Sudanese people,” Risch declared in a statement on X. Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the committee’s top Democrat, said she would likely support such a designation after further review.
The role of outside actors has also come under scrutiny. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) was criticized for allegedly providing military support to the RSF, a charge the UAE has repeatedly denied. In a statement, the UAE’s Strategic Communications Department emphasized, “The latest UN Panel of Experts report makes clear that there is no substantiated evidence that the UAE has provided any support to RSF, or has any involvement in the conflict.” Nonetheless, Senator Shaheen described the UAE as “an irresponsible player who has contributed to one of the worst humanitarian crises that we have on the planet right now.”
The RSF, for its part, has denied targeting civilians, despite mounting evidence and survivor testimony to the contrary. Escapees, including one named Ikram Abdelhameed, described paramilitary forces beating and shooting men fleeing the city—a claim corroborated by statements from aid officials, satellite images, and unverified social media videos. Aid groups and activists have warned of the potential for ethnically motivated revenge attacks, especially as the RSF’s control consolidates across all five Darfur state capitals. According to Al Jazeera English, the main groups targeted have been non-Arab ethnicities such as the Fur, Zaghawa, and Berti.
The humanitarian toll is staggering. The United Nations estimates that tens of thousands have been killed since the civil war erupted in April 2023, with about 13 million people displaced—figures that make the Sudan conflict one of the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian disasters. As of late October 2025, the fall of El Fasher has added a new layer of urgency, with hundreds reportedly killed in the immediate aftermath and thousands more feared missing or dead. The Sudanese army’s withdrawal from the city marked the loss of its last significant holdout in Darfur, effectively ceding control of the region to the RSF and raising fears of further ethnic violence and territorial partition.
Regional powers have not remained silent. Saudi Arabia and Egypt have both formally condemned the RSF’s actions, joining a chorus of international voices demanding accountability. Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department has yet to comment on whether it will move forward with the terrorist designation for the RSF. Earlier in the year, the Biden administration had determined that RSF members and allied militias committed genocide in Sudan and imposed sanctions on the group’s leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti.
For those on the ground, however, diplomatic maneuvers and international condemnations offer little immediate relief. Aid workers in Tawila and other camps are bracing for an influx of traumatized survivors—if they arrive at all. The fate of the thousands still unaccounted for remains a haunting question. As one aid worker put it, the horror of the journey out of El Fasher is now written not just in testimony, but in the very landscape—roads lined with bodies and a city marked by unspeakable loss.
The fall of El Fasher has laid bare the brutality of Sudan’s civil war and the profound suffering of its people. With the world watching and evidence mounting, the demand for justice and humanitarian intervention grows ever more urgent.
