RSF siege of El Fasher in Sudan has ‘hallmarks of genocide’, UN mission finds

The siege and capture of the Sudanese city of El Fasher by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group last October bore “the hallmarks of genocide”, a UN-mandated fact-finding mission has said.In a report detailing the harrowing 18-month occupation of the capital of North Darfur, investigators concluded that the RSF and allied militias deliberately inflicted conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Zaghawa and Fur ethnic communities.“The scale, coordination, and public endorsement of the operation by senior RSF leadership demonstrate that the crimes committed in and around El Fasher were not random excesses of war,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, the mission’s chair, who called for a thorough investigation of the perpetrators.A massive fire at a displacement camp in Sudan killed one child, injured other people and left homeless hundreds who had already had to flee to escape the fighting ravaging the country. Photograph: AFP/Getty ImagesThe report was published a day after the UK, Canada and the European Union denounced possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan during the nearly three-year war.Its release coincides with the latest wave of drone strikes that have left dozens dead across Sudan’s Kordofan region, an area where the UN has consistently said that grave abuses are taking place.Unicef said at least 15 children were killed this week when a drone struck a displacement camp in West Kordofan. Local rights defenders reported that another strike on a market in nearby North Kordofan left 28 people dead. Blame for the West Kordofan attack has been directed at the Sudanese army; while the RSF has been accused of carrying out the strike in North Kordofan.Since April 2023, the RSF has been waging war against the army after a falling out between its commander, Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo, and the army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, former allies who came to power after the 2019 Sudanese revolution ousted longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir.The RSF has been backed by the United Arab Emirates, a position the Gulf state denies despite evidence compiled by the UN, independent experts and reporters.The group grew out of the Janjaweed militias, notorious for atrocities committed in the early 2000s in a ruthless campaign in Darfur that killed 300,000 people and drove 2.7 million from their homes.The war, the latest crisis in Sudan’s history of violence, has forced 11 million people to flee their homes and killed tens of thousands, triggering what the UN calls one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.Sudanese refugee Jeda Abdullah is placed on a drip by a doctor at the Sudanese-run Hope and Haven for Refugees Association clinic in Adre, Chad. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesThe fact-finding report said that after the seizure of El Fasher, the RSF inflicted “three days of absolute horror” and that thousands of people, particularly from the Zaghawa ethnic group, were killed, raped or disappeared.Othman said: “The scale, coordination and public endorsement of the operation by senior RSF leadership demonstrate that the crimes committed in and around El Fasher were not random excesses of war. They formed part of a planned and organised operation that bears the defining characteristics of genocide.”Goods being transported between a Sudanese border town and Adre in Chad. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesInvestigators said RSF militiamen had acted with impunity and “with genocidal intent” and that as conflict’s focus shifts from Darfur to Kordofan, outside countries must act decisively to hold perpetrators to account “and bring an end to this senseless violence”.The mission interviewed 320 witnesses and victims from El Fasher and the surrounding areas, including in investigative visits to Chad and South Sudan. It authenticated, verified and corroborated 25 videos.The report documents widespread sexual violence against girls and women aged seven to 70, including those who were pregnant. Survivors said they were attacked in front of family members, with the assaults often involving severe physical abuse.In one incident, a 12-year-old girl was raped by three RSF fighters as her mother watched, moments after her father was killed while trying to shield her. The girl later died from her injuries.According to the findings, such assaults frequently occurred at the same locations where mass killings had taken place, including El Saudi hospital and El Fasher University. Witnesses said RSF fighters also carried out public gang rapes of at least 19 women in rooms strewn with corpses, among them the bodies of the victims’ husbands.On Thursday the US announced that it was placing sanctions on three RSF commanders over their roles in the siege and capture of El Fasher. The US Treasury said the RSF had carried out “ethnic killings, torture, starvation, and sexual violence” in the operation.Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report