El-Fasher After RSF Seizure: The RSF captured El-Fasher on October 26, imposing a communications blackout and leaving the city devastated with reports of executions, mass burials and widespread shortages. More than 106,000 people have fled while an estimated 70,000–100,000 remain trapped, according to the World Food Programme. Satellite imagery and aid groups report bodies being burned, buried and moved; survivors describe detentions, ransom demands and severe shortages of food, water and medicine amid confirmed famine conditions.
El-Fasher Ravaged After RSF Seizure: ‘City Full Of Bodies’, Mass Burials And Famine Reported
Sudanese who fled massacres and sexual violence in El-Fasher in Darfur carries jerrycans have sought refuge in camps in the north of the country (Ebrahim Hamid)(Ebrahim Hamid/AFP/AFP)
When Sudanese nurse Asmaa returned to the Darfur city of El-Fasher she expected to find relatives and neighbours — instead she encountered bodies where homes once stood and no trace of the family she had come to rescue.
Background
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been battling Sudan's army since April 2023, launched a bloody offensive that captured the army’s last major hold in Darfur on October 26. Witnesses and aid agencies report executions, rape, widespread looting and other atrocities during and after the assault. An RSF-imposed communications blackout has largely sealed El-Fasher off from the outside world since the takeover.
Witness Accounts
Asmaa fled the city on the Sunday it fell but was detained near Nyala with 11 others and freed only after her family paid a $3,000 ransom. She returned to El-Fasher and spent weeks searching shelters, schools and neighbourhoods for missing relatives.
"I do not know if they are detained or dead. I just keep looking in shelters, schools, everywhere," she told reporters.
She described a city that is "terrifying and full of bodies," with her own home "completely destroyed." Entering a neighbour’s house, she found two "still fresh" bodies. Nearby she saw deep pits she believes were used to "erase evidence of killings."
Satellite And Aid Analysis
AFP and aid organisations have combined satellite imagery with eyewitness testimony to piece together conditions on the ground. Satellite analysis shows a growing number of earth disturbances resembling graves in a roughly 3,600-square-metre area near the UNICEF compound — features that increased from September and through the RSF takeover in October.
Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) said late-November imagery detected "piles of objects consistent with human bodies" being moved, burned and buried in areas where RSF forces were present. A Red Crescent volunteer who entered El-Fasher on December 4 reported burying bodies scattered across streets and buildings, with new corpses found daily.
Humanitarian Crisis
The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates more than 106,000 people have fled El-Fasher since the takeover, while 70,000–100,000 remain trapped. For 18 months before the assault, many civilians had been surviving under siege on minimal rations such as animal feed and cowhide. The UN recently confirmed famine in parts of the region, and the city has received virtually no sustained humanitarian aid.
One of the few organisations granted access, the Malam Darfur Peace and Development Organisation, delivered food and blankets on December 2 and found severe shortages of water, food and medicine. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams in nearby Tawila reported repeated accounts of kidnappings, ransoms, torture and people being prevented from leaving.
RSF Response And Propaganda
The RSF has dismissed many accusations as "fabricated narratives," claiming investigations are under way and releasing video that highlights reconstruction efforts, a new police station and inspections of a water plant while urging residents to resume "normal" life. Aid groups and independent satellite analysis, however, continue to document large-scale destruction, mass burials and denial of humanitarian access.
Broader Context
The fighting in Sudan has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and reopened deep wounds in Darfur, which suffered atrocities in the early 2000s at the hands of forces linked to today’s RSF. The situation in El-Fasher underscores a worsening humanitarian emergency that requires urgent international attention and access for relief organisations.
Sources: Interviews with residents and aid workers, satellite analysis by AFP and Yale HRL, statements from WFP, MSF, Red Crescent and local aid groups.
