The paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out “a coordinated campaign of destruction” against non-Arab communities in and around the Sudanese town of el-Fasher, the characteristics of which point to genocide, United Nations-backed experts have said.
El-Fasher was the last stronghold of the Sudanese army in the vast Darfur region in the west of the country until it fell to the RSF at the end of October last year. The two sides have been fighting a cruel civil war since April 2023.
In a new report on Thursday, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan said RSF fighters were responsible for atrocities after an 18-month siege of El-Fasher, during which they imposed conditions “calculated to bring about the physical destruction” of non-Arab communities, particularly the Zaghawa and Fur communities.
“The scale, coordination and public support of the operation by senior RSF leaders demonstrate that the crimes committed in and around El Fasher were not random excesses of war,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, president of the mission.
“They were part of a planned and organized operation that has the defining characteristics of genocide.”
According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide refers to any of the following acts committed with the intention of destroying – in whole or in part – a national, ethnic, racial or religious group: killing members of the group; cause serious bodily or mental harm to its members; deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to bring about their physical destruction; impose measures aimed at preventing births in the group; and forcibly transfer their children to another group.
Under the 1948 convention, an assessment of genocide could be made even if only one of the five criteria was met.
The fact-finding mission, which was commissioned by members of the Human Rights Council, said it found that at least three of those five were met in RSF's alleged actions.
According to the report, they included the murder of members of a protected ethnic group; cause serious bodily and mental harm; and deliberately inflicting living conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the group in whole or in part.
The independent UN investigation cited a systematic pattern of ethnically motivated killings, sexual violence, destruction and public statements explicitly calling for the elimination of non-Arab communities.
The team's report documented acts specifically targeting protected ethnic groups, accompanied by “exterminating rhetoric,” accusing RSF of attacking people based on their ethnicity, gender, and perceived political affiliation.
“RSF fighters openly declared their intention to attack and eliminate non-Arab communities,” the report states, citing accounts of “explicit threats to 'cleanse' the city.”
“Survivors quoted them as saying, 'Are there any Zaghawa among you? If we find Zaghawa, we will kill you all… We want to eliminate everything black from Darfur.'”
He said the alleged violations indicated the RSF's intention to fully or partially destroy the Zaghawa and Fur communities.
The report also claims that girls and women between the ages of seven and 70, including pregnant women, were raped and subjected to other forms of sexual violence, such as whippings, beatings and forced nudity.
It cited survivors who reported that “numerous” women were raped and recounted point-blank killings of civilians in homes, streets, open areas or while trying to flee El Fasher.
“They described people being shot to death in the streets, trenches and public buildings where they were hiding, while bodies of men, women and children littered the roads,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from RSF, which had previously denied such allegations.
Sudan entered conflict almost three years ago when a rivalry between its army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo erupted into all-out war.
Since then, tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions forced from their homes, and both sides have been accused of war crimes.
The RSF was formed from tribal “Janjaweed” militias, which became a notorious state-backed group used as a counter-rebel force during the Darfur war that began in 2003. Around 300,000 people died in combat, as well as from hunger and disease caused by the conflict.
