By Ambassado Mohamed Osman Akasha
The Terrorist Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia has been besieging the city of El Fashir for almost two years, during which the people of this historic city bore the brunt of the indiscriminate artillery shelling, drone attacks, starvation, and destruction of hospitals. When the genocidal militia intensified its notorious shelling using chemical agents, mainly Sarin gas, the Sudanese Armed Forces decided to withdraw from the city to prevent further mayhem and harm to the inhabitants of El Fashir. The infamous militia entered the city of El Fashir, capital of North Darfur, on 26 October 2025. What followed was mass extermination, a premeditated slaughter of civilians, ethnic cleansing, and an orgy of violence that resembles one of the most brutal genocides on the globe.
The RSF militia, descended from the Janjaweed militias, bombarded El Fashir with all types of lethal weapons and Sarin gas shells. Survivors describe fighters opening fire on fleeing families, dragging men from homes, and raping women in the open. Hospitals, markets, and displacement camps became hunting grounds for RSF militia death squads.
From Siege to Genocide
For months before that, El Fashir was a city under siege, starved, bombarded, and encircled by the militia, artillery, and drones. The Washington Post reported that residents were “reduced to eating leaves and animal feed” as RSF militia forces blocked aid and bombed water supplies [^14]. When they entered the city, the siege became slaughter.
Over 2,000 unarmed civilians were executed in two days (26–27 Oct 2025), many shot in their homes or burned alive in shelters. The UN Human Rights Office verified dozens of summary executions and warned of “a pattern of ethnically targeted violence” [^4].
Earlier in the year, RSF militia bombardments on El Fashir and the Abu Shouk displacement camp killed more than 180 civilians in less than a month[^13]. Satellite imagery released by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International showed entire districts, hospitals, and marketplaces reduced to ash[^9][^10]. Even hospitalized patients who were not able to flee were killed inside hospitals in El Fashir.
“A Horror Beyond Words”: UN Condemnation
During the UN Security Council briefing on 30 October 2025, Marta Ama Akyaa Pobee, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Africa, issued a stark warning:
“The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allied militias are believed to have carried out mass killings of civilians in El Fashir, summary executions during house-to-house searches, and shootings of families trying to flee. Reports received by the UN Human Rights Office indicate that these attacks were targeted along ethnic lines. The situation is simply horrifying.”[^1][^5]
Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned “appalling reports of summary executions, ethnic targeting, and sexual violence by RSF,” warning that “the risk of large-scale, ethnically motivated atrocities in El Fashir is mounting by the day.”[^4]The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs described El Fashir as “a city under siege, under attack, civilians unable to flee, hospitals looted, aid blocked”[^11].
The UK Ambassador to the UN, James Kariuki, added: “Reports of atrocities, including targeted killings, torture, and sexual and gender-based violence by the RSF are horrifying. The world will hold the RSF leadership accountable for the crimes committed by their forces.”[^7]That same day, the UN Security Council issued a formal statement condemning the RSF assault[^3].
International Condemnation and Global Outrage
The atrocities in El Fashir triggered an unprecedented wave of international condemnation. The United Nations, African Union, and European Union each issued statements denouncing the militia’s actions as “barbaric,” “indiscriminate,” and “possibly genocidal”[^23][^25].
The United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany jointly called on the RSF to cease attacks on civilians, warning that commanders and foreign sponsors “will be held responsible for these crimes”[^24].
Senators Cardin and Risch, along with Representatives McCaul and Meeks, sent a formal letter to President Joe Biden asking for a determination under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act regarding the RSF[^29].
On 30 October 2025, U.S. Senators Risch and Shaheen led a bipartisan call to consider designating the RSF a Foreign Terrorist Organization[^30].
Rape as a Weapon of War
Health workers and rights monitors documented over 100 cases of rape between January and October 2025, committed by terrorist RSF fighters against women from the Zaghawa, Fur, and Berti ethnic groups[^13].
A confidential Darfur24 report details that in March, RSF fighters attacked villages west of El Fashir, killing 30 civilians, raping four women, and displacing 50,000 families[^12].
UN Special Adviser Alice Wairimu Nderitu warned that “the scale and pattern of attacks by RSF on ethnic communities in El Fashir may amount to genocidal acts”[^16].
Ethnic Cleansing by Design
Survivors recount door-to-door executions, forced expulsions, and the torching of IDP camps.
The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan concluded that the RSF committed murder, torture, sexual slavery, and persecution “with ethnic, gender, and political motivations” [^17].
Over 600,000 civilians remain trapped without food, medicine, or clean water [^11]. Hospitals have been destroyed, doctors executed, and aid workers abducted.
The UAE’s Silent Partnership in Atrocity
Investigations by The New York Times, CNN, and The Guardian reveal that UAE-funded cargo planes and drones reached RSF strongholds in Chad and Darfur via covert routes[^18][^19][^20].
Despite denials, Emirati arms and fuel shipments persisted even as RSF massacres escalated, making the UAE a de facto accomplice in what human-rights experts increasingly describe as a genocide[^21].
UN investigators warn that continued external financing and resupply enable the RSF to prolong its campaign of extermination[^22].
A Crime Without Consequence
El Fashir’s tragedy mirrors the world’s failure. The same Janjaweed militias, rebranded as RSF, are committing atrocities with modern weaponry.
As UN officials warn of genocide and humanitarian agencies unearth mass graves, the international community faces a moral choice: act decisively to hold the RSF militia and its backers accountable—or accept complicity through silence.
If impunity prevails again, El Fashir will not only be remembered as the city that fell but as the place where humanity surrendered its conscience.
—The writer is Charge’ d’Affaires a.i, Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan in Nairobi.
