El Fasher massacre
A genocidal massacre in the city of El Fasher in western Sudan began on 26 October 2025. Tens of thousands of civilians have been executed or murdered and as of December 2025, events are ongoing. The massacre was carried out by the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group after they captured the city, which was the last Sudanese Armed Forces stronghold in Darfurmarking the end of official state presence in the city and perhaps the region. Humanitarian experts consider it the worst war crime committed during the Sudanese civil war, characterized by mass atrocities and ethnic cleansing. The Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab estimated that following the initial 26 October massacre, the "250,000 remaining civilians been killed by RSF, died, been displaced, or persist in hiding".
In November 2025, a communications blackout in the city was still limiting information. The Yale HRL estimated that the figures of those killed are "undercounted" and Sky News claimed that analysts estimate "tens of thousands" of individuals killed. El Fasher's Resistance Committee stated that many of those living in El Fasher's core were killed.
The speed and intensity of the killings in the immediate aftermath of the fall of El Fasher has been compared to the first 24 hours of the Rwandan genocide. According to Sudanese journalist and author Nesrine Malik:
"The RSF of today is the Janjaweed of yesteryear, except this time armed to the teeth, supported by powerful external allies, and with a renewed appetite to purge once more non-Arab populations it has been hostile to for decades."On 16 November 2025, Sudan researcher Eric Reeves described the RSF as a "genocidal militia force" and the massacre as a "genocidal slaughter".
Background
El Fasher is a city that serves as the capital of the North Darfur state of Sudan. Due to refugees from various conflicts, notably the War in Darfur, the population of the city has varied. In 2001 the city had a population of approximately 178,500 people. By 2009 it was estimated at 500,000.Since 2023, a civil war has been raging across Sudan. It began as a result of a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Muhammad Dagalo, better known by the mononym Hemedti. The RSF was created by Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir in 2013, formed from existing Janjaweed militias in Darfur, a region of western Sudan. The Janjaweed were a major perpetrator of the Darfur genocide against the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa ethnic groups.
El Fasher came under siege, and the first major battle there took place in April 2023. Over the next two years, there were several clashes between armed forces. In May 2024 it was estimated the city had a population of 1.5 million, of whom at least 800,000 were internally displaced people sheltering there. Throughout the siege a large number of people fled to various refugee camps, such as the Tawila refugee camp and the Zamzam Refugee Camp, the latter of which was destroyed by the RSF, killing up to 2,000 people and forcing an exodus of 400,000 refugees to Tawila. In October 2025, El Fasher remained the last stronghold of the Sudanese Armed Forces in Darfur. According to estimates, during September and October 2025 more than 260,000 civilians were trapped in the city because of the siege. During this period, reports documented a deteriorating humanitarian crisis, with UN convoys even being struck by drone attacks.
Following intensified RSF attacks on the city, the SAF retreated late on 27 October 2025, resulting in the fall of the city. On 28 October, al-Burhan confirmed that the SAF had withdrawn from the city. In the ensuing raid on the city, which the RSF described as "combing operation on a large-scale," the group claimed that it has an "utmost commitment" to protect civilians, of whom approximately 260,000 remained in the city at the time its capture.
Motives
RSF fighters are suspected to have justified the massacre by branding those who remained in the city after the SAF left as collaborators or spies. According to testimony provided to Amnesty International, despite being asked if they were soldiers or civilians, residents of the city were told:Further reports by Médecins Sans Frontières and others stated that the killings have been reported as indiscriminate but ethnically targeted. Eyewitnesses recounted RSF soldiers asking civilians what "tribe" they were from and would execute them on the spot depending on the answer. Some testimonies were provided by survivors being treated in nearby Tawila. Financial motives for the violence have also been repeatedly allegedseveral thousand people were reportedly detained by the RSF to be held for ransom, with those not able to source payment being executed.
Funding and military support
According to Sudan researcher Eric Reeves, United Arab Emirates funds are used to "pay RSF officers' salaries, to bribe those who might interdict weapons shipments, even to provide an extremely elaborate social media and public relations campaign out of Dubai". Reeves also sees the UAE as a major supplier of weapons to the RSF. He stated that UAE cargo planes are used to provide weapons to the RSF via intermediary countries, citing advanced, long-range Chinese howitzers as a key weapon in the siege of El Fasher supplied to the RSF by the UAE.Massacre
Once the RSF took hold of the city on 27 October, multiple sources, including local organizations, international non-governmental organizations, the United Nations, and independent monitoring groups, reported a wave of executions targeting unarmed civilians. Confusion ensued as the fall of defenses was followed by a communications blackout. This included house-to-house raids during which civilians were killed by RSF fighters traveling on foot, by camel and in vehicles.Civilians were killed in and around shelters for displaced families, hospitals, and homes. Witnesses and medical staff reported that drones, artillery, guns and whips were used in attacks that deliberately targeted civilians, in addition to firing indiscriminately. In the chaos, some were gathered together before being executed. Drones were seen chasing and targeting civilians. Videos show militants shooting civilians at point-blank range and mutilating them, including shattering their skulls. They have also reportedly engaged in sexual violence against women and girls. Other sources reported people being burned alive, extrajudicial executions, and planned attacks on certain ethnic groups. Witnesses recounted RSF fighters in trucks driving over and crushing civilians, sometimes after noticing they were still alive. Some said they saw 40 to 60 or more civilians killed in a singular location at a time. Eyewitnesses recounted the largest site of killing being the Daraja Oula neighborhood where most civilians were sheltering days before the massacre. The RSF "fired on everybody." RSF fighters were also seen looting buildings.
Witnesses and aid workers said men were separated from women, tortured, and executed on the grounds that they declined forced conscription into the RSF. They have additionally reported the executions of POWs. Separated women and children were forced to walk on thorns for upwards of ten hours. Images and videos posted to social media by RSF soldiers shows them posing with the dead bodies of civilians, often doing "V signs". Testimony from civilians who had managed to escape the city recounted RSF soldiers threatening those captured for hours on end, keeping them awake by whipping them, often laughing as they committed atrocities. One witness recounted being rounded up by camel-mounted RSF militants with around 200 other men, being taken to a nearby reservoir and subjected to racial slurs before the soldiers began shooting.
On 26 October, it was estimated that many of the 260,000 people were still captured within the city. By 5 December, however, it was believed that few individuals remained detained in centers within the city. In the outbreak of killings, residents attempted to escape, with some following SAF soldiers in the process of fleeing or deserting the conflict. Refugees who managed to escape reported being ambushed by RSF soldiers, particularly near the RSF perimeter berm. The berm's trenched itself stopped or slowed many from escaping, forcing some families to split as younger individuals were able to scale the berm. RSF militants perpetrated violent searches, disappearances of civilians, and kidnappings, typically for ransom. Many of those who managed to escape, as well as family of those captured in the city, described receiving phone calls from RSF soldiers demanding ransom in exchange for the safe release of hostages, with sums ranging from $20 to $20,000 USD being reported. It is believed that many have already "desperately" wired money to the RSF. Others unable to pay the sum promised payments, waiting for family from outside the country to provide it. While holding people for ransom, RSF militants reportedly filmed executions before showing surviving hostages, telling those being extorted that they would save their relatives if they paid.
On 14 November, Mona Rishmawi, a member of the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan, reported that the Rapid Support Forces had turned the University of Alfashir into "a killing ground" where thousands of civilians had been sheltering, and there were "bodies piling in the streets and trenches dug in and around the city".