Sudanese Doctors accuse RSF of ethnic cleansing in North Darfur
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The Sudanese Doctors Union accuses the RSF of massacring thousands in El Fasher, with reports of ethnic cleansing, mass displacement, and burned escapees.
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Children walking to their shelter at a camp for internally displaced persons near El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, Sudan, undated. (© UNICEF/Shehzad Noorani )
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been accused by the Sudanese Doctors' Union of committing mass atrocities and acts of ethnic cleansing in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, after seizing control of the city over the weekend. Humanitarian organizations and local medical sources report that over 177,000 civilians remain trapped amid widespread killings, abuse, and the collapse of basic services.
In a statement released Wednesday, the Sudanese Doctors' Union described the events in El Fasher as a “horrific massacre against unarmed civilians committed on an ethnic basis.” The group estimates that thousands have been killed, although exact figures remain uncertain due to ongoing communication blackouts and the complete absence of security.
The syndicate reported numerous war crimes carried out by RSF fighters, including summary executions, house raids, sexual violence, and forcing civilians to dig their own graves and even bury themselves alive.
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According to the statement, around 2,000 civilians were killed within hours of the RSF’s entry into the city. Victims were reportedly burned alive, and many of the 177,000 civilians still in El Fasher are feared to have been subjected to similar atrocities.
The statement also detailed a massacre at the Saudi hospital in El Fasher, where RSF forces were said to have executed more than 450 patients and wounded individuals, alongside approximately 1,200 elderly, sick, and injured people in surrounding field medical facilities.
These acts were described as part of a deliberate strategy to target non-combatants and decimate local infrastructure, further compounding the suffering of a besieged civilian population.
Humanitarian crisis worsens across North Darfur
The Jebel Marra and Tawila Emergency Room Coordination Council reported that more than one million displaced Sudanese have fled to towns across North Darfur in recent weeks. Thousands more are attempting to flee El Fasher amid escalating violence.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has also confirmed that over 36,000 people fled El Fasher between October 26 and 29, including 28,000 in just 48 hours, with at least 1,000 arriving in Tawila.
Despite these efforts, the RSF reportedly targeted escape routes, burning civilians alive inside their vehicles as they attempted to flee the city.
The mounting evidence of mass killings, ethnic targeting, and deliberate attacks on civilians and medical facilities has prompted renewed calls for urgent international intervention.
With hundreds of thousands still trapped and the humanitarian situation deteriorating rapidly, rights groups warn that North Darfur faces a potential genocide if immediate measures are not taken to stop the RSF’s advance and secure safe corridors for civilians.
What's happening?
El Fasher’s fall marks the latest in a series of RSF offensives that have trapped vast civilian populations under siege, cut off from food, water, and medical care for months. The RSF’s strategy has reportedly relied on blocking aid shipments, closing escape routes, and systematically attacking hospitals and shelters, a pattern mirroring tactics used during earlier campaigns in West Darfur and El Geneina.
This siege warfare has compounded the region’s humanitarian crisis, with international organizations warning of imminent famine and further mass displacement, and urging critical intervention to prevent a wider ethnic purge in North Darfur.​
