Sudan is a country with a long memory: Our history stretches back to the biblical Kingdom of Kush, one of Africa’s greatest civilizations. The war now waged by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia is unlike anything we’ve ever faced. It is tearing the fabric of our society, uprooting millions, and placing the entire region at risk. Even so, Sudanese look to allies in the region and in Washington with hope. Sudan is fighting not only for its survival, but for a just peace that can only be achieved with the support of partners who recognize the truth of how the war began and what is required to end it.
The leader of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has declared an investigation into what he called violations committed by his soldiers during the capture of el-Fasher.
The announcement by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, came after escalating reports of mass civilian killings following the RSF takeover of the city in the Darfur region on Sunday.
The UN Security Council is expected to hold a meeting on Sudan, which is in its third year of civil war between the army and the paramilitary fighters.
The RSF leader spoke after international outrage about reports of mass killings in el -Fasher, apparently documented by his paramilitary fighters in social media videos.
Hemedti said he was sorry for the disaster that had befallen the people of el-Fasher and admitted there had been violations by his forces, which would be investigated by a committee that has now arrived in the city.
The RSF denies widespread allegations that the killings in el-Fasher are ethnically motivated and follow a pattern of the Arab paramilitaries targeting non-Arab populations.
Activists have also stepped up demands for international pressure on the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is accused of providing military support to the RSF.
The UAE denies this despite evidence presented in UN reports.
El-Fasher had been the army’s last stronghold in the Darfur region, and was captured by the RSF after an 18-month siege marked by starvation and heavy bombardment.
The capture of el-Fasher effectively splits the country, with the RSF now in control of most of Darfur and much of neighbouring Kordofan and the army holding the capital, Khartoum, central and eastern regions along the Red Sea.
The two warring rivals had been allies – coming to power together in a coup in 2021 – but fell out over an internationally backed plan to move towards civilian rule.
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The Rapid Support Forces militia reportedly killed hundreds of civilians at the main hospital in el-Fasher, days after it captured the Sudanese city, the head of the UN’s health agency says.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN health agency was “appalled and deeply shocked” by the reported killing of 460 people at the hospital.
Earlier, the Sudan Doctors’ Network said that on Tuesday RSF fighters had “cold bloodedly killed everyone they found inside the Saudi Hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present”.
It gave no casualty figures, but said medical facilities in the city had been “transformed into human slaughterhouses”.
The Sudan Doctors Network has also accused the RSF of kidnapping six medics – including four doctors, a pharmacist and a nurse – and reportedly demanding ransoms in excess of $150,000 (£114,000) for their release.
Tuesday’s attack on Saudi Hospital was also reported by the el-Fasher Resistance Committee, a group of local activists, which said there was “a horrifying silence” afterwards.
The city had been the army’s last stronghold in the Darfur region, and was captured by the RSF on Sunday after an 18-month siege marked by starvation and heavy bombardment.
Since the conflict erupted in April 2023, the RSF and allied Arab militia in Darfur have been accused of targeting people from non-Arab ethnic groups – allegations the RSF denies.
With the fall of el-Fasher, the UN, activists and aid agencies have expressed fear over the fate of the estimated 250,000 people trapped in the city, many from non-Arab communities.
A communications blackout has made it difficult to confirm what is happening.
People arriving in Tawila have been describing the extreme violence they faced as they fled el-Fasher [AFP/Getty Images]
With the difficulties in getting reports from the ground, aid agencies say the full scale of the devastation in and around el-Fasher is only beginning to emerge.
Some people have managed to make the dangerous journey to the town of Tawila, about 60km (37 miles) west of el-Fasher, and described the extreme violence they faced.
“The shelling was so intense on Saturday that we had no choice but to flee el-Fashir,” one man told BBC Arabic’s Sudan Lifeline programme.
“Along the way, the RSF filmed us and we were beaten and insulted – and they stole what we had on the journey. A number of people were captured and ransoms were demanded for their release.
“Some of those who were taken were later executed. During the journey, many people were arrested, and we suffered greatly from hunger and thirst.”
Jan Egeland, a former top UN humanitarian official, told the BBC the situation was catastrophic.
“We have had massacres on top on all of those months of deprivation, starvation, no medical care,” he said.
“I think this is the worst place on Earth now; it’s the biggest humanitarian emergency on Earth and it happens in the dark, really – there has been far too little attention to what’s happening in Sudan.”
Dr Tedros said prior to the Saudi Hospital attack, the WHO had verified 185 attacks on health care facilities since the start of the war, resulting in 1,204 deaths.
“All attacks on health care must stop immediately and unconditionally. All patients, health personnel and health facilities must be protected under international humanitarian law. Ceasefire!” he said.
The capture of el-Fasher effectively splits the country, with the RSF now in control of most of Darfur and much of neighbouring Kordofan and the army holding the capital, Khartoum, central and eastern regions along the Red Sea.
The two warring rivals had been allies – coming to power together in a coup in 2021 – but fell out over an internationally backed plan to move towards civilian rule.
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The UN has called for safe passage for trapped civilians out of the Sudanese city of el-Fasher after paramilitary fighters announced they had seized control of the army’s main base there.
Sudan’s military has not acknowledged loss of the site, which would be a significant victory for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the ongoing civil war.
UN chief António Guterres said the latest fighting marked a “terrible escalation” in the conflict, adding that the suffering of civilians was “unbearable”, AFP news agency reports.
El-Fasher is the last army foothold in the vast western region of Darfur, and has been besieged by the RSF and its allies for 18 months.
Heavy fighting has been reported since Saturday after RSF fighters captured the home of the North Darfur governor.
UN Human rights chief Volker Türk warned that the “risk of further large-scale, ethnically motivated violations and atrocities in el-Fasher is mounting by the day”.
The Sudanese Doctors’ Network said the RSF had already carried out ethnically motivated killings of dozens of people in the city and had looted medical facilities and pharmacies.
Imran Abdullah, an adviser to the RSF commander, denied the group’s fighters were targeting civilians.
“On the contrary, they are the sole guarantor and protector of all those fleeing conflict areas, particularly in el-Fashir,” he told BBC Arabic’s Middle East Lifeline radio programme.
Social media videos verified by the BBC now show RSF combatants celebrating the capture of the army’s el-Fasher headquarters.
They claim to have seized full control of the city, but the army’s local allies say fighting continues in some parts.
Communication lines to el-Fasher have been almost completely cut off, while those who managed to flee are enduring harrowing hours filled with fear and uncertainty.
“We’ve witnessed many of our relatives being massacred – they were gathered in one place and all killed. Now we have no idea what has happened to those who are still alive,” one man told the BBC.
Another resident who fled said they were “extremely worried, as we still have no information about what has happened to the people inside el-Fasher – the children, the elderly, the wounded”.
The RSF has been accused of targeting civilians in airstrikes and trapping nearly 250,000 people after encircling the city with an earth wall, leaving many on the brink of starvation.
The city is one of the worst battlegrounds of Sudan’s civil war, leading the UN to call it an “epicentre of suffering”.
The UN’s top humanitarian official Tom Fletcher said he was deeply alarmed at the reports of civilian casualties.
“With fighters pushing further into the city and escape routes cut off, hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped and terrified – shelled, starving, and without access to food, healthcare, or safety,” Fletcher said in a statement.
“Civilians must be allowed safe passage and be able to access aid,” he added.
The US has also called for safe passage and is trying to negotiate a ceasefire.
Taking el-Fasher would be a crucial comeback for the RSF after defeat in Khartoum.
But it is likely a sign that the civil war will continue, not end.
Sudan has been ravaged by conflict since 2023, after top commanders of the RSF and Sudanese army fell out and a vicious power struggle ensued.
More than 150,000 people have died across the country and about 12 million have fled their homes, creating one of the worst humanitarian crises.
The army controls most of the north and the east, with el-Fasher being until now the last major urban centre in Darfur still held by government forces and its allies.
The RSF controls almost all of Darfur and much of the neighbouring Kordofan region.
The group has previously said that it hopes to form a rival government in el-Fasher when it assumes complete control.
Additional reporting by Natasha Booty, Damian Zane, Danai Nesta Kupemba and Peter Mwai
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Hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped amid an escalation of fighting in El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Sunday.
“With fighters pushing further into the city and escape routes cut off, hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped and terrified – shelled, starving, and without access to food, healthcare, or safety,” said UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher.
Fletcher said he was “deeply alarmed by reports of civilian casualties and forced displacement,” calling for “an immediate ceasefire in El Fasher, across Darfur and throughout Sudan.”
“Civilians must be allowed safe passage and be able to access aid. Those fleeing to safer areas must be allowed to do so safely and in dignity. Those who stay – including local responders – must be protected. Attacks on civilians, hospitals and humanitarian operations must stop immediately.”
According to UN estimates, around 300,000 people are living in desperate conditions in El Fasher, which has been cut off for more than a year.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has taken El Fasher, the last government-controlled city in the Darfur region, according to its own statements.
The military did not initially comment on this. According to media reports, fighting continues in the capital of North Darfur state. The information could not initially be independently verified.
Sudan’s de facto ruler, Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, has been locked in a bloody power struggle with RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo since April 2023. Both sides have been accused of serious human rights violations.
The UN considers the situation to be the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, with more than 12 million people displaced and more than 26 million facing starvation – about half the country’s population – are suffering from acute hunger. The regions of Darfur and Kordofan, currently controlled by the RSF, are particularly affected.
At least 91 people have been killed in Sudan’s besieged city of el-Fasher in attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over 10 days last month, the United Nations says.
The attacks took place during intensified fighting between the RSF and Sudan’s army around the city, the largest urban centre in the Darfur region that remains under the control of the military and its allies, known as the Joint Forces.
El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, has been under siege for more than a year by the RSF, which launched a renewed offensive on the city in recent weeks, raising fears of potential atrocities.
UN rights chief Volker Turk said on Thursday that the city’s Daraja Oula neighbourhood was repeatedly attacked and subjected to RSF artillery shelling, drone strikes and ground incursions from September 19 to 29.
He called for urgent action to prevent “large-scale, ethnically driven attacks and atrocities in el-Fasher.”
He said “atrocities are not inevitable”, adding that “they can be averted if all actors take concrete action to uphold international law, demand respect for civilian life and property, and prevent the continued commission of atrocity crimes”.
Since the army recaptured Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, in March, the focus of the fighting has shifted to el-Fasher.
In recent weeks, the RSF has tightened its nearly 500-day siege of the city, one of the longest in modern urban warfare, and has stepped up the tempo and intensity of its attacks, including the frequent use of drones, according to the Sudanese army and residents of the city.
“What little food remains is beyond the reach of most. Two kilos [4.4lb] of millet sell for $100, a kilo of sugar or flour for $80 while the average monthly salary, when salaries were still paid, was $70,” Sarra Majdoub, a former UN expert on the country wrote in a recent opinion article for The Guardian.
At least six people were killed and 10 were wounded in artillery and drone attacks on the city on Wednesday, a medical worker in el-Fasher told the AFP news agency.
Last month, at least 78 people were killed in a drone attack on al-Safiyah Mosque during dawn prayers that was blamed on the RSF.
Satellite images and analysis conducted by the Yale Humanitarian Lab, which has been monitoring the Sudan war, indicated that the munition used was likely an RSF suicide drone because there was “no visible ground scarring or crater inside the mosque, indicating that the munition detonated on impact with the mosque roof”.
Civilians inside the city are mostly concentrated in its north near the Sudanese army’s main position but haven’t been able to flee as the RSF surrounds the city.
Last week, the army said it had managed to carry out an airdrop of supplies to its soldiers in the city, a sign of the measures required to work around siege.
“The cruelty of the situation is compounded by continued arbitrary RSF restrictions on bringing food and essential supplies into the city and credible reports of civilians tortured and killed by RSF fighters for doing so,” Turk said.
Civilians who have tried to flee often have to make life-threatening journeys to nearby camps for displaced people because the RSF has almost completely surrounded the city, extending a 68km-long (42-mile-long) berm it has dug at its perimeter.
Human rights organisations have reported violations and killings by the RSF of people who have tried to leave el-Fasher.
Mukesh Kapila, professor of global health and humanitarian affairs at the University of Manchester, told Al Jazeera that the situation in the city was “extremely dire” and residents trapped there were facing “an extremely difficult calculation”.
“The routes out of el-Fasher are very few, and the situation in the surrounding refugee camps, where famine has been declared in some, is not necessarily much better,” he said.
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres has expressed dismay at “the rapidly deteriorating situation” in El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur State.
Guterres’ spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement on Saturday that civilians continue to bear the brunt of the devastating conflict raging in the country.
The statement came a day after at least 70 people were killed when a mosque was attacked in the besieged city, the last remaining capital controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces.
The army said the attack had been carried out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been fighting the military for power of the country since April 2023.
“With El Fasher having been under a tightening siege by the Rapid Support Forces for more than 500 days, attacks affecting civilians have further intensified in recent weeks, with the majority of the residents of the Abu Shouk displacement camp reportedly having been forced to flee due to relentless shelling and raids,” Dujarric said.
“The fighting must stop now.”
In a special report released on Thursday, the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) said that El Fasher appears to be falling to the RSF and that the group likely controls the Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced people.
It said that it made its assessment based on the fact that RSF is using advanced weaponry and that the military does not have sufficient forces and supplies to defend the city.
“The results of RSF’s capture and control of Abu Shouk IDP Camp and encirclement of El Fasher have already proven catastrophic for civilians,” the report read.
