Amnesty report finds ethnic cleansing in Sudan. What does it reveal?
In a report ‘City Under Siege, Children Under Fire: Rapid Support Forces’ Crimes Against Humanity in North Darfur’ released on July 1, Amnesty International concluded
In a report ‘City Under Siege, Children Under Fire: Rapid Support Forces’ Crimes Against Humanity in North Darfur’ released on July 1, Amnesty International concluded that Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) committed “crimes against humanity and carried out ethnic cleansing” during its campaign to seize El Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur state. Sudan has been mired in a brutal war since April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF, which has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions, according to the United Nations. What is the report? The report documents widespread abuses against civilians in and around El Fasher between early 2024 and October 2025, as the RSF fought the SAF and allied joint forces in a conflict that devastated North Darfur. According to Amnesty, the RSF committed murder, forcible transfer, imprisonment, torture, rape, sexual slavery, other forms of sexual violence, enslavement, extermination and persecution. The investigation, conducted over eight months between August 2025 and April 2026, is based on interviews with 247 people, including 208 survivors (169 adults and 39 children) who experienced or witnessed conflict-related abuses. Amnesty also verified 89 videos and analysed satellite imagery from North Darfur.
What does it say? Amnesty concluded that the RSF committed crimes against humanity and carried out ethnic cleansing during its campaign to seize El Fasher. The report states that the RSF had taken control of four of Darfur’s five State capitals by November 2023, leaving El Fasher as the last major stronghold of the SAF and allied joint forces. Beginning in 2024, the RSF systematically attacked villages, towns and displacement camps surrounding the city, targeting civilians, looting property and burning civilian infrastructure. Many of the affected communities were predominantly inhabited by the Zaghawa and other non-Arab ethnic groups. Amnesty further finds that the pattern of destroying villages in Abu Zerega area, populated primarily by Zaghawa communities along with smaller numbers of other non-Arab ethnic groups, which took place between December 2024 and March 2025, is consistent with ethnic cleansing. This conclusion is reinforced by the RSF’s continued control of these areas, preventing displaced populations from returning. The report also says the RSF repeatedly used the derogatory slur ‘falangay’ (or ‘falangayat’ in the plural), a term referring to slavery or servitude, while attacking civilians from non-Arab ethnic groups.
The BriefWire