By Ambassado Mohamed Osman Akasha<\/p>\n
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.
\nThe 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.<\/p>\n
From Siege to Genocide<\/p>\n
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 \u201creduced to eating leaves and animal feed\u201d as RSF militia forces blocked aid and bombed water supplies [^14]. When they entered the city, the siege became slaughter.
\nOver 2,000 unarmed civilians were executed in two days (26\u201327 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 \u201ca pattern of ethnically targeted violence\u201d [^4].
\nEarlier 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Horror Beyond Words\u201d: UN Condemnation<\/p>\n
During the UN Security Council briefing on 30 October 2025, Marta Ama Akyaa Pobee, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Africa, issued a stark warning:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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.\u201d[^1][^5]<\/p>\n
Volker T\u00fcrk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned \u201cappalling reports of summary executions, ethnic targeting, and sexual violence by RSF,\u201d warning that \u201cthe risk of large-scale, ethnically motivated atrocities in El Fashir is mounting by the day.\u201d[^4]The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs described El Fashir as \u201ca city under siege, under attack, civilians unable to flee, hospitals looted, aid blocked\u201d[^11].
\nThe UK Ambassador to the UN, James Kariuki, added: \u201cReports 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.\u201d[^7]That same day, the UN Security Council issued a formal statement condemning the RSF assault[^3].<\/p>\n
International Condemnation and Global Outrage<\/p>\n
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\u2019s actions as \u201cbarbaric,\u201d \u201cindiscriminate,\u201d and \u201cpossibly genocidal\u201d[^23][^25].
\nThe United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany jointly called on the RSF to cease attacks on civilians, warning that commanders and foreign sponsors \u201cwill be held responsible for these crimes\u201d[^24].
\nSenators 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].
\nOn 30 October 2025, U.S. Senators Risch and Shaheen led a bipartisan call to consider designating the RSF a Foreign Terrorist Organization[^30].<\/p>\n
Rape as a Weapon of War<\/p>\n
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].
\nA 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].
\nUN Special Adviser Alice Wairimu Nderitu warned that \u201cthe scale and pattern of attacks by RSF on ethnic communities in El Fashir may amount to genocidal acts\u201d[^16].<\/p>\n
Ethnic Cleansing by Design<\/p>\n
Survivors recount door-to-door executions, forced expulsions, and the torching of IDP camps.
\nThe UN Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan concluded that the RSF committed murder, torture, sexual slavery, and persecution \u201cwith ethnic, gender, and political motivations\u201d [^17].
\nOver 600,000 civilians remain trapped without food, medicine, or clean water [^11]. Hospitals have been destroyed, doctors executed, and aid workers abducted.<\/p>\n
The UAE\u2019s Silent Partnership in Atrocity<\/p>\n
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].
\nDespite 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].
\nUN investigators warn that continued external financing and resupply enable the RSF to prolong its campaign of extermination[^22].<\/p>\n
A Crime Without Consequence<\/p>\n
El Fashir\u2019s tragedy mirrors the world\u2019s failure. The same Janjaweed militias, rebranded as RSF, are committing atrocities with modern weaponry.
\nAs 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\u2014or accept complicity through silence.
\nIf impunity prevails again, El Fashir will not only be remembered as the city that fell but as the place where humanity surrendered its conscience.<\/p>\n
\u2014The writer is Charge\u2019 d\u2019Affaires a.i, Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan in Nairobi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-512574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-article"},"yoast_head":"\n