Amnesty International has accused Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of committing crimes against humanity and carrying out ethnic cleansing during its campaign to capture the city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s western Darfur region.
According to a report released on Wednesday, Amnesty said RSF fighters committed widespread human rights abuses during the 18-month siege of the city. The organization documented allegations of murder, torture, rape, sexual slavery, forced displacement, imprisonment, persecution, and other serious violations against civilians.
Amnesty’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, said children were deliberately targeted during the conflict, with many killed, injured, abducted, raped, or forcibly recruited. The report, based on interviews with more than 200 survivors, also states that the evidence collected may be relevant to investigations into the crime of genocide.
Researchers reviewed satellite imagery and dozens of open-source videos, concluding that many victims were targeted because of their ethnic identity. Amnesty said Arab fighters affiliated with the RSF attacked members of non-Arab communities, particularly civilians from the Zaghawa ethnic group.
One 17-year-old survivor described being beaten and shot in the leg during an attack in Abu Zerega, south of el-Fasher. He said eight of his cousins, including four boys aged between 11 and 17, were killed in the same incident.
The RSF has not commented on Amnesty’s latest findings but has previously denied accusations of war crimes. The group has acknowledged that some violations may have occurred and said it is investigating them, while maintaining that reports of atrocities have been exaggerated.
Sudan has been engulfed in a civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF for nearly three years. The conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced more than 14 million, and created what aid agencies describe as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Around 28 million people are now facing acute hunger.
The United Nations has previously warned that violence in el-Fasher bears the hallmarks of genocide and reported that more than 6,000 people were killed during just three days of fighting in the city. Amnesty has called for an immediate ceasefire, the deployment of an international force to protect civilians, and accountability for those responsible for alleged atrocities.