Witnesses: RSF Holds 50,000 Civilians in El Fasher, Burns Bodies

Escalating Crisis in El Fasher: Civilian Detention and Human Rights Violations

Eyewitnesses and survivors have reported that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are holding over 50,000 civilians at five main locations within El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state. These individuals are being prevented from leaving the city, creating a dire humanitarian situation. The RSF has also confiscated “Starlink” satellite internet devices and mobile phones, aiming to cut off communication between detainees and the outside world.

On October 26, the RSF declared full control over El Fasher after intense battles with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and their allied movements, which had persisted for more than a year. Following this capture, the RSF faced widespread accusations of human rights violations, including killings, looting, detention, and forced displacement. These actions have drawn condemnation from local, regional, and international bodies.

Three survivors who managed to escape and reach Tawila, located approximately 56 km (35 miles) southwest of El Fasher, shared their accounts with Sudan Tribune. They stated that the RSF is detaining over 50,000 people inside El Fasher and preventing them from leaving. According to the survivors, the detention sites include the land port east of the city, the Al-Rashid dormitory and El Fasher University, the Saudi Hospital, and another site in the Awlad al-Reef neighborhood. Thousands more are gathered in the town of Garni, which the RSF had previously designated as an assembly point for those fleeing the city.

The RSF has conducted extensive raids in the city’s neighborhoods, particularly in the Al-Daraja Al-Oula neighborhood, which was the last refuge for thousands of civilians. Witnesses reported that the forces confiscated dozens of “Starlink” devices and mobile phones. Additionally, they forced detainees, especially young men, to record videos and voice messages—sent via the phones of RSF elements—to their families, demanding ransom payments for their release, ranging from 5 million to 100 million Sudanese pounds.

A statement issued by the Sudan Doctors Network on Sunday accused the RSF of collecting hundreds of bodies from the streets and neighborhoods of El Fasher in recent days. Some were buried in mass graves, while others were completely burned. The statement claimed this was an attempt to hide evidence of the RSF's crimes against civilians. It noted that these actions flagrantly violated human values and international and religious norms that prohibit the mutilation of corpses and mandate respect for the right of the dead to a dignified burial.

The network emphasized that the crimes witnessed in El Fasher “exceed the bounds of a humanitarian catastrophe, amounting to a systematic genocide targeting human life and dignity.” It warned of the danger of the international community’s continued silence, which it described as “shameful silence amounting to complicity.” The statement called for immediate action from the international community and the opening of an independent international investigation into the violations committed in El Fasher, stressing that burning bodies or burying them in mass graves will not hide the traces of the crime or absolve the perpetrators of legal accountability.

A recent report from the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at Yale University confirmed, through satellite imagery analysis, that the RSF had used heavy machinery to block the only vital road civilians were using to escape El Fasher towards Garni, tightening the siege on an estimated 200,000 trapped civilians. Satellite images published by the lab detected “charred objects” and “black smoke” in at least two locations, including the Saudi Hospital, which witnessed a mass massacre. Experts said this activity is consistent with the burning of bodies, a practice that contravenes Islamic burial rites.