Mass Killings Reported After RSF Seizes El Fasher — U.N. Warns of Expanding Atrocities

Satellite image: Vantor close-up imagery shows dense black smoke rising from a residential area near El Fasher airport. (Image credit: 2025 Vantor/DigitalGlobe/Getty)

Overview

Sudan’s civil war escalated dramatically this week after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured El Fasher, a key city in West Darfur that had endured roughly 18 months under siege. Witnesses, local groups and U.N. officials have reported widespread atrocities — including house-to-house killings, summary executions and attacks on hospitals — as thousands fled the city.

What happened

Last weekend RSF fighters overran El Fasher, previously one of the main strongholds of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in Darfur. The city's fall has been followed by numerous reports alleging mass killings of civilians and other serious violations of international humanitarian law.

Eyewitness accounts and attacks on medical facilities

Survivors who escaped to nearby towns such as Tawila have described chaotic and brutal scenes: fighters conducting door-to-door searches, beating and shooting residents — including women and children — and rounding up groups of men to be executed. A witness who survived an attack near El Fasher told Reuters that fighters on camels rounded up hundreds of men and led them to a reservoir where many were killed.

One of the worst reported incidents occurred at the Saudi Hospital, the last functioning hospital in the city during the siege. The World Health Organization reported that gunmen abducted medical staff and subsequently carried out multiple waves of killings there, saying roughly 460 people — patients and staff — were killed and several medical workers remain detained.

Evidence and corroboration

Despite a communications blackout in the besieged city, UN investigators and humanitarian groups have collected testimony and audiovisual materials. The U.N. Human Rights Office said it reviewed videos showing “dozens of unarmed men being shot or lying dead, surrounded by RSF fighters.” The Sudan Doctors Network reported that at least 1,500 people were killed as civilians attempted to flee. Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab used satellite imagery from Oct. 27–28 to corroborate alleged executions around the Saudi Hospital and to identify a potential mass killing at a former Children’s Hospital used as an RSF detention site.

Humanitarian toll

U.N. officials warn the humanitarian impact is severe. Tom Fletcher, the U.N.’s top humanitarian official, described victims facing rape, mutilation, extortion and other violence while fleeing. The Famine Review Committee declared famine in parts of Darfur in August 2024; the U.N. now estimates that more than half of Sudan’s population — about 25 million people — require humanitarian assistance. Nearly three million Sudanese have fled to neighboring countries, and tens of thousands more are internally displaced. Tawila is reported to be hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees who escaped the violence.

International and political response

At an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting, Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Africa, warned there was no safe corridor for civilians and that the conflict's geographic scope is widening, with drone strikes reported across Blue Nile, South Kordofan, West Darfur and Khartoum. U.S. lawmakers from both parties have condemned the reported atrocities and urged the administration to take stronger action; some members of Congress are pressing for the RSF to be designated a terrorist organization. The United Arab Emirates has been criticized by some lawmakers over alleged support for the RSF, a claim the UAE denies and says is unsupported by U.N. investigations.

Background on the RSF and the conflict

The RSF, a Darfur-rooted paramilitary force formally created under former president Omar al-Bashir in 2013, evolved from the Janjaweed militias implicated in earlier Darfur campaigns. The RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces have been locked in a civil war since April 2023, a conflict that has caused enormous loss of life and displacement. Both sides have faced accusations of war crimes, including widespread use of sexual violence as a weapon of terror.

Outlook

U.N. officials warn the risk of mass atrocities and ethnically targeted violence remains alarmingly high. With RSF forces reported to control major urban centers across Darfur, humanitarian access and protection for civilians are urgent priorities. Independent investigations and increased humanitarian relief are needed to verify reported crimes and to assist survivors and displaced populations.

Note: Many accounts are based on eyewitness testimony, local group reports and satellite imagery; investigations by independent bodies are ongoing to verify the full scale and details of the reported incidents.