Reports of mass atrocities emerge from El Fasher amid RSF siege
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Verified testimonies and UN reports point to atrocities committed by RSF in El Fasher, including mass executions and ethnic violence.
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A Sudanese soldier patrols a market area in Khartoum on March 24, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
A witness said he was among 200 men surrounded by armed fighters on camels near the city of El Fasher in western Sudan earlier this week. The attackers reportedly marched them toward a reservoir, chanting racist slogans before opening fire.
Khair Ismail, the witness, told a local journalist in a video interview for Reuters from the nearby town of Tawila that “one of my captors recognized me from school and let me go,” adding that “He told them: don’t kill him — even after they killed all my friends and everyone around me.”
Ismail said he had been delivering food to relatives still inside El Fasher when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized the city on Sunday. He, like the others who were detained, was unarmed. He is among four eyewitnesses and six aid workers interviewed by Reuters, all of whom described forced displacements, separation of men from women, and targeted violence.
UN estimates hundreds may have been executed
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released statements on Friday indicating that hundreds of unarmed civilians and fighters may have been executed during and after the RSF’s takeover of El Fasher.
Reuters also verified at least three videos posted on social media showing RSF fighters shooting unarmed prisoners. Other footage shows piles of bodies, reportedly victims of summary executions.
A senior RSF commander dismissed the reports as "media exaggeration" aimed at covering what he described as the Sudanese army’s defeat in El Fasher. He claimed that RSF leadership had ordered investigations into alleged abuses, that some members were detained, and that RSF units were aiding civilians in evacuation efforts. “No killings took place as alleged,” he told Reuters, adding that some soldiers were impersonating civilians and were taken in for questioning.
Genocide expert Alex de Waal said the RSF’s reported actions in El Fasher bear striking resemblance to tactics used in Al-Geneina and other towns during earlier phases of the conflict in Sudan. “The reported actions of the RSF in El Fasher appear very similar to what they did in Al-Geneina and other areas,” de Waal noted.
— 🇸🇩: Testimony of Sudanese scholar Sheikh Adam Hamid Al-Tahir, who survived the brutal RSF massacre in which 77 worshippers were martyred during Fajr prayers last Friday in El Fasher.#Sudan pic.twitter.com/DQkAvOC2ny
— Emelia (@blondfighter20) October 26, 2025
Women and children displaced, men detained or missing
Mary Bryce, protection advisor with the NGO Nonviolent Peaceforce, operating in Tawila, reported that most of the displaced are women, children, and elderly people. “Trucks organized by the RSF transported some people from Garni to Tawila, while others were taken elsewhere,” she said.
In a recent video statement, the RSF claimed to be distributing food and medical aid to displaced families in Garni. However, aid workers noted that the RSF may also be attempting to keep populations in RSF-held areas to attract international humanitarian aid.
While approximately 260,000 civilians remained in El Fasher at the time of the attack, only about 62,000 have since been accounted for, with just a few thousand reaching Tawila, currently under the control of a neutral force.
Qu'est ce qui me fait venir à ce chiffre ?
Les témoignages, les images satellites, les vidéos et les données de l'arrivées des réfugiés permettent d'en douter.
Sur cette vidéo, il y a facilement plus de 1 000 hommes rassemblés avant d'être massacrés. pic.twitter.com/hjAGuh29xo— Clément Molin (@clement_molin) October 31, 2025
Survivor describes beatings, searches, and family disappearances
Tehani Hassan, a former hospital cleaner, told Reuters she fled to Tawila early Sunday morning after her husband’s brother and her uncle were killed by stray gunfire. En route, she and her family were stopped by three men in RSF uniforms who searched, beat, and humiliated them.
“They beat us badly. They threw our clothes on the ground. Even I, as a woman, was searched,” she said, adding that their food and water were also dumped on the ground.
Upon reaching Garni, Hassan said the fighters separated the women and children from the men, including her brother and brother-in-law, whom she has not seen since. “We can’t be sure they’re alive based on how we were treated,” she said. “If they don’t kill you, hunger and thirst will.”
Mass killings, executions in hospitals documented
According to the Financial Times, RSF fighters have reportedly slaughtered hundreds of civilians, in some cases filming themselves carrying out the executions. One such atrocity included the massacre of 460 patients and their families at the Saudi Maternity Hospital in El Fasher, with further reports of killings driven by ethnic motives.
A spokesperson from the Sudanese Doctors Network said that RSF fighters executed everyone inside the Saudi hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone found in the wards. “The RSF turned hospitals into human slaughterhouses,” the spokesperson said.
Read more: Sudan: Satellite images reveal atrocities after El Fasher siege
