The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out ethnically targeted killings, widespread sexual violence and enforced disappearances during their late-October takeover of El Fasher in Sudan's Darfur region - acts that a UN fact-finding mission said show "hallmarks of genocide" against the Zaghawa and Fur communities and signal an ongoing risk of further atrocities.
In a report released on Thursday, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan said the evidence establishes that at least three underlying acts of genocide were committed: "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."
"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 mission.
"They formed part of a planned and organized operation that bears the defining characteristics of genocide."
'Hallmarks of Genocide in El Fasher'
Key elements cited by the Fact-Finding Mission
- An 18-month siege that "deliberately imposed conditions of life" through deprivation of food, water, medical care and humanitarian assistance.
- A pattern of identity-based targeting linked to ethnicity, gender and perceived political affiliation.
- Documented allegations of mass killings, widespread rape and other sexual violence, arbitrary detention, torture and cruel treatment, extortion and enforced disappearances.
- Reported perpetrator rhetoric explicitly calling for elimination of non-Arab communities, cited as evidence of intent.
- A warning that, absent prevention and accountability, the risk of further genocidal acts remains "serious and ongoing."
