Sudan's RSF accused of crimes against humanity in el-Fasher
Amnesty International says Sudan's Rapid Support Forces militia committed ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in its assault on the city of el-Fasher amid the
Amnesty International says Sudan's Rapid Support Forces militia committed ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in its assault on the city of el-Fasher amid the longrunning civil war with Sudan's military. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary's siege and capture of the city of el-Fasher, Sudan, involved ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity, NGO Amnesty International said in research released on Wednesday. Sudan's brutal civil war between the army and the RSF, which began in 2023, has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. An independent UN fact-finding mission in February concluded that the 2025 assault on the capital of North Darfur bore the "hallmarks of genocide." Iran war drives food insecurity in war-torn Sudan To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video What did Amnesty say about the siege and capture of el-Fasher? Amnesty interviewed 247 victims or witnesses between early 2024 and October 2025 in North Darfur for its report, entitled "City Under Siege, Children Under Fire: Rapid Support Forces' Crimes Against Humanity in North Darfur." It said that during the prolonged siege, RSF systematically attacked settlements around el-Fasher which housed the Zaghawa people, an ethnic group in western Darfur. The report is one of several to allege widespread and deliberate violence against children including killing, abductions, forced recruitment, and rape.
After a protracted siege, the RSF moved into el-Fasher last October, with its fighters often putting out videos of their own actions on taking over the city on social media Image: Rapid Support Forces (RSF)/AFP Amnesty Secretary General Agnes Callamard described the conflict as a "war on civilians" and said that the world was warned about the risks during the protracted siege. "It is a stain on the conscience of humanity,” Callamard said. "Children were not collateral damage of this violence — often, they were deliberately targeted and have suffered immensely. They have been killed, injured, raped, abducted, and forcibly recruited on a massive scale." Callamard said that a nationwide ceasefire was "immediately needed," more than three years after the fighting broke out. She called for an international force to be deployed to protect civilians, saying attacks on civilians and children "will continue unhindered" unless action is taken. What is the situation in Sudan's civil war and el-Fasher? A fragile alliance between Sudan's army and the RSF militia collapsed in 2023, leading to open war between the two forces by April of that year. The RSF has made and held considerable gains in the west of the country, particularly in the Darfur regions, leading to something resembling a de facto partition in the country.
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