GENEVA - The Rapid Support Forces unleashed "a wave of intense violence … shocking in its scale and brutality" during its final offensive to capture the besieged city of El Fasher last October, committing widespread atrocities that amount to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, says a report published Friday by the UN Human Rights Office.
Based on interviews with over 140 victims and witnesses conducted in Sudan's Northern state and in eastern Chad in late 2025, the UN Human Rights Office documented more than 6,000 killings in the first three days of the RSF offensive on El Fasher, following 18 months of sustained siege of the city. The report assesses that at least 4,400 people were killed within El Fasher in those few days and over 1,600 others along exit routes as they fled. The actual scale of the death toll during the week-long offensive is undoubtedly significantly higher.
The report found that the RSF and allied Arab militia carried out widespread attacks, including mass killings and summary executions, sexual violence, abductions for ransom, torture and ill-treatment, detention, disappearances, pillage and the use of children in hostilities. In many cases, attacks were directed against civilians and persons hors de combat based on their ethnicity or perceived affiliation.
"The wanton violations that were perpetrated by the RSF and allied Arab militia in the final offensive on El Fasher underscore that persistent impunity fuels continued cycles of violence," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
"There must be credible and impartial investigations to establish criminal responsibility, including of commanders and other superiors. These must lead to meaningful accountability for perpetrators of exceptionally serious crimes, through all available means - whether fair and independent Sudanese courts, use of universal and extraterritorial jurisdiction in third states, before the International Criminal Court or other mechanisms."
"There are reasonable grounds to believe that the RSF and affiliated Arab militia committed acts amounting to the war crimes of murder; intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects; launching indiscriminate attacks; use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare; attacks directed against medical and humanitarian personnel; infliction of sexual violence, including rape; torture and other cruel treatment; acts of pillage; and the conscription, enlistment, and use of children in hostilities," says the report.
These patterns of grave violations and abuses in El Fasher mirror those previously documented in RSF offensives on Zamzam camp in April 2025 and in El Geneina and Ardamata in 2023. Taken together, they demonstrate an organized and sustained course of conduct, suggesting a systematic attack against the civilian population in the Darfur region. Acts of violence knowingly committed as part of such an attack would amount to crimes against humanity.
"The unprecedented scale and brutality of the violence meted out during the offensive deeply compounded the horrific violations the residents of El Fasher had already been subjected to during the long months of siege, constant hostilities and bombardment," said Türk.
The UN Human Rights Office documented multiple incidents of mass killing targeting locations where many civilians had gathered, with the apparent aim of inflicting maximum harm. Witnesses gave independent and consistent accounts of one incident in which around 500 people were killed when RSF fighters opened fire using heavy weapons on a crowd of 1,000 sheltering at Al-Rashid dormitory in El Fasher University on 26 October. One of the witnesses reported seeing bodies thrown into the air, "like a scene out of a horror movie".
RSF fighters also carried out summary executions within El Fasher of civilians accused of 'collaboration' with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Joint Forces, often determined on the basis of their non-Arab ethnicity, such as the Zaghawa community. Adolescent boys and men aged under 50 were specifically targeted.
"During my recent visit to Sudan, I heard direct testimony from survivors that illustrates how sexual violence was systematically used as a weapon of war," said Türk. Survivors and witnesses recounted patterns of rape and gang rape, abductions for ransom using sexual violence, and sexual assault during invasive body searches, with women and girls from the Zaghawa and other non-Arab communities at particular risk.
The report also documents widespread abductions for ransom as civilians fled, with consistent accounts of a pattern of abductions and detention of civilians for financial gain. It documents 10 detention facilities used by the RSF in El Fasher, with severely inadequate conditions leading to outbreaks of disease and deaths in custody. This included the Children's Hospital, which was converted into a detention facility. In addition, several thousands of people remain missing and unaccounted for.
The UN Human Rights Chief renewed his call on parties to the conflict to take effective steps to bring to an end the grave violations by forces under their command, and to States with influence to act urgently to prevent the repetition of violations documented in El Fasher. "This includes respecting the arms embargo already in place, and ending the supply, sale or transfer of arms or military material to the parties."
He also reiterated his call on States to do everything possible to support local, regional, and international mediation efforts, to achieve a cessation of hostilities and a pathway towards inclusive civilian governance. "In a protection crisis of this scale, human rights must remain central to efforts to achieve a durable resolution of the conflict," said Türk.
