Khartoum:
Global concern is rising over reports of mass killings in the Sudanese city of El-Fasher, after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control from the national army, trapping thousands of civilians inside the war-torn city.
Sudan’s military chief, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, confirmed on Monday that he had ordered government troops to withdraw from El-Fasher, citing “systematic destruction and killing of civilians.” The withdrawal marks a major shift in the ongoing civil war that has gripped Sudan since April 2023.
According to the United Nations, there are credible reports of summary executions and other atrocities in El-Fasher. Analysts at Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab released satellite images showing what appeared to be “piles of bodies executed en masse” and “apparent pools of blood.”
“The horror, scale, and speed of killing happening now are unlike anything I’ve ever seen in 25 years of doing this work,” said Nathaniel Raymond, the lab’s executive director, in a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter).
The RSF, however, has denied accusations of killing civilians or targeting non-Arab communities, despite mounting evidence from human rights organizations and eyewitness accounts.
El-Fasher, located in Sudan’s Darfur region, had been under siege by RSF fighters for nearly 18 months, cutting off food and medical supplies and leaving hundreds of thousands at risk of starvation. Its fall is being seen as a major turning point in the country’s bloody conflict, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced almost 12 million people.
A local alliance known as the Joint Force, which backs the military, claimed that 2,000 civilians were killed since the RSF took control of the city, though this number has not been independently verified.
Those who managed to flee El-Fasher described horrific scenes. One resident told the BBC that several members of his family were “massacred” after being rounded up by fighters. “We have lost contact with everyone still inside. Communication lines have been cut,” he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that El-Fasher’s only partially functioning hospital was attacked on Sunday, killing a nurse and further crippling the city’s healthcare system.
The African Union condemned what it called “ethnically targeted killings” and possible war crimes, while the European Union urged all sides to de-escalate. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “gravely concerned” and condemned the reported violations of international humanitarian law.
Despite international appeals, Gen Burhan has vowed to continue fighting. “We will reclaim every inch of our land from these traitors,” he said in his televised address.
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