A new report by Amnesty International has accused Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of committing crimes against humanity and carrying out ethnic cleansing during the capture of El Fasher in North Darfur, in what the organization describes as one of the darkest chapters of Sudan’s ongoing conflict.
In its report, launched in Nairobi by Secretary General Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International has named three senior commanders of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), alleging they oversaw war crimes and crimes against humanity during the siege that was witnessed on October 2025.
According to Amnesty, the group’s actions amounted to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, with civilians subjected to killings, torture, rape, sexual slavery, forced displacement, persecution and imprisonment.
Titled City Under Siege, Children Under Fire, the report concludes that the abuses were systematic and disproportionately targeted non-Arab communities, children being among the worst affected, with many killed, injured, raped, abducted or forcibly recruited during the violence.
The findings are based on survivor testimonies, satellite imagery and forensic analysis of videos allegedly showing senior RSF commanders executing civilians, torturing detainees and directing abuses against prisoners.
More than 6,000 people were reportedly killed during the three-day assault on El Fasher that United Nations experts previously said bore the “hallmarks of genocide.”
Speaking during the report’s launch, Callamard urged the international community to act urgently, warning that attacks on civilians continue with little accountability. She called for an immediate ceasefire, stronger protection for civilians through a United Nations-backed mission, and increased support for international accountability mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court and African Union- and UN-backed investigations.
“The commanders identified in this report should be investigated and, where sufficient admissible evidence exists, prosecuted,” she said.
Amnesty says it shared its findings with RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ahead of publication but had not received a response.
Sudan has been engulfed in conflict since April 2023, when fighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF following months of escalating tensions. The war has since claimed at least 59,000 lives, displaced an estimated 13 million people and left more than 30 million in need of humanitarian assistance, making it one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
