GENEVA - The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan said in a new report today that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out a coordinated campaign of destruction against non-Arab communities in and around El-Fasher, the hallmarks of which point to genocide. While the Mission documented war crimes and crimes against humanity, the evidence establishes that at least three underlying acts of genocide were committed.
These acts include killing members of a protected ethnic group; causing serious bodily and mental harm; and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction in whole or in part - all core elements of the crime of genocide under international law.
The report to the Human Rights Council, "Hallmarks of Genocide in El-Fasher," found that genocidal intent is the only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the RSF's systematic pattern of ethnically targeted killings, sexual violence, destruction, and public statements explicitly calling for the elimination of non-Arab communities, particularly the Zaghawa and Fur.
"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, Chair of the Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan. "They formed part of a planned and organized operation that bears the defining characteristics of genocide."
Carefully planned and executed, the takeover of El-Fasher and its surroundings was preceded by an 18-month siege that systematically weakened the targeted population through starvation, deprivation, trauma and confinement - conditions calculated to bring about their destruction. The city's inhabitants were physically exhausted, malnourished, and in part unable to flee, leaving them defenseless against the extreme violence that followed. Thousands of persons, particularly the Zaghawa, were killed, raped or disappeared during three days of absolute horror. RSF leadership hailed the takeover as a "major and historic military victory," praising their fighters for "liberating" the city from the "terrorist Islamic army."
The report documents a pattern of conduct directed specifically against protected ethnic groups, including mass killings, widespread rape, sexual violence, torture and cruel treatment, arbitrary detention, extortion, and enforced disappearances during its takeover in late October. These acts were not incidental to hostilities but were committed in a manner and context demonstrating intent to destroy the targeted groups.
Identity-based targeting linked to ethnicity, gender, and perceived political affiliation was a central element of the RSF operation. RSF fighters openly stated their intention to target and eliminate non-Arab communities. Survivors cited them as saying: "Is there anyone Zaghawa among you? If we find Zaghawa, we will kill them all"; "We want to eliminate anything black from Darfur."
Such explicit statements, combined with the systematic nature of the attacks, provide direct and circumstantial evidence of genocidal intent.
Discriminatory and ethnic slurs were used during widespread, systematic and coordinated acts of rape, including numerous cases of gang-rape, and other forms of sexual violence. The selective targeting of Zaghawa and Fur women and girls, while women perceived as Arab were often spared, underscores the discriminatory and destructive purpose of the violence. "These are slaves. Kill them, destroy them, rape them," one survivor recalled an RSF member saying.
"The body of evidence we collected - including the prolonged siege, starvation and denial of humanitarian assistance, followed by mass killings, rape, torture and enforced disappearance, systematic humiliation and perpetrators' own declarations - leaves only one reasonable inference," said Fact-Finding Mission expert Mona Rishmawi. "The RSF acted with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Zaghawa and Fur communities in El-Fasher. These are the hallmarks of genocide."
The crimes in El-Fasher unfolded against a backdrop of repeated warnings and clearly identified atrocity risk indicators. The escalation from ethnically targeted attacks to acts that meet the material elements of genocide demonstrates a failure of prevention despite clear warning signs. No effective measures were taken to dissuade the RSF from continuing down its destructive path.
"As the conflict has expanded to the Kordofan region, urgent protection of civilians is needed - now more than ever," warned Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, an expert member of the Fact-Finding Mission. "The conduct in El-Fasher represents not merely an intensification of prior violations and related crimes, but an acute manifestation of patterns consistent with genocidal violence."
In the absence of effective prevention and accountability, the Fact-Finding Mission considers that the risk of further genocidal acts remains serious and ongoing.
"Perpetrators at all levels of authority must be held accountable," Othman said. "Where evidence indicates genocide, the international community has a heightened obligation to prevent, protect and ensure justice is done."
Background: The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan was established by the UN Human Rights Council in October 2023 through resolution A/HRC/RES/54/2. Its mandate was last extended for an additional year in October 2025 with resolution A/HRC/RES/60/3. The Fact-Finding Mission's key task is "to investigate and establish the facts, circumstances and root causes of all alleged human rights violations and abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, including those committed against refugees, and related crimes in the context of the ongoing armed conflict that began on 15 April 2023, between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, as well as other warring parties." Resolution A/HRC/RES/S-38/1, adopted on 14 November 2025, requested the Fact-Finding Mission "to conduct an urgent inquiry into the recent violations and abuses of international human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law allegedly committed in and around El Fasher; and to identify, where possible, all those for whom there are reasonable grounds to believe that they are responsible for alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law in and around El Fasher and to support efforts to ensure that the perpetrators of alleged abuses and violations are held accountable."
