The UN Security Council on Thursday expressed its “deep concern” over the escalating violence in Sudan, while the United Nations humanitarian operations chief reported “credible accounts of mass executions” perpetrated by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) following their recent capture of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, after an eighteen-month siege.
Tom Fletcher, the UN’s humanitarian operations chief, said the city had “slid further into a darker hell,” adding: “Women and girls are being raped, people are being mutilated and killed, all with total impunity.” He cited “credible reports of mass executions” carried out by RSF units shortly after entering the city.
The UN Security Council voiced its “deep alarm at the escalating violence in and around El Fasher,” condemning the “atrocities attributed to RSF forces against civilians,” including “summary executions and arbitrary detentions.”
From the city of Tawila, 70 kilometers west of El Fasher and now a refuge for thousands of civilians, humanitarian worker John Oshebi from the NGO “ALIMA” told AFP that “the situation has taken a tragic turn since Sunday,” describing women and children arriving “in a state of extreme exhaustion.”
A report by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, supported by satellite imagery and videos, confirmed “evidence of continuing massacres in the 48 hours following the RSF takeover of El Fasher,” including executions near hospitals—among them the Saudi Hospital—and “a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing.”
Communications via satellite remain largely cut off except for RSF units using the Starlink network. Access to El Fasher also remains blocked despite repeated calls to open humanitarian corridors. According to the UN, more than 36,000 people have fled El Fasher since Sunday, most heading toward Tawila, which now hosts over 650,000 displaced people—the largest displacement center in Sudan.
A Dead End and UN Alarm
Testimonies of RSF abuses have multiplied, accompanied by a flood of violent videos shared across social media. The UN warned this week that El Fasher is “in an extremely critical situation,” with rising risks of “ethnically motivated atrocities.” Similarly, the European Union condemned the “brutality” of the RSF and its “ethnic targeting of civilians.”
Hospitals Under Attack
The governor of Darfur, Minni Arko Minnawi, said that 460 people were killed in the attack on the Saudi Hospital in El Fasher. Sudanese medical organizations and civil networks reported hundreds more killed inside makeshift wards and nearby areas. While independent verification remains difficult, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the abduction of four doctors, a nurse, and a pharmacist from the same hospital.
Satellite images published by Yale University on October 28 showed “clusters of white objects surrounded by red patches on the ground,” consistent with “the presence of human remains” near the hospital. Witnesses reported repeated RSF attacks on hospitals using rockets, drones, and armed raids. Physicians still in the city treated malnourished children, trauma victims, and the wounded with near-empty supplies after most hospitals shut down under assault.
Targeting Mosques and Charities
Following their seizure of El Fasher on Sunday from the Sudanese army, RSF forces now control the entire Darfur region, an area covering one-third of Sudan’s landmass. Communications and internet remain cut off, except for RSF’s exclusive use of Starlink. Access to the city is still prohibited, making it almost impossible to reach independent sources.
Muna Al-Dayem, Sudan’s Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, stated that more than 2,000 civilians had been “killed during the militia’s invasion of the city,” adding that RSF fighters “targeted mosques, volunteers at communal kitchens, and Sudanese Red Crescent teams.” The “Fasher Resistance Committees” reported sporadic gunfire in the city’s western districts where a small group of soldiers continued to resist.
Since Sunday, another 36,000 people have fled El Fasher—mostly heading toward the overcrowded Tawila camps. The UN reports that the region’s humanitarian capacity is stretched to the breaking point.
Genocidal Roots: From Janjaweed to RSF
The RSF originated from the notorious (Janjaweed), Arab militias used by ousted president Omar al-Bashir in the early 2000s to crush rebel movements dominated by Black African tribes in Darfur, including the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). These militias committed widespread atrocities, including mass killings, rape, and looting against civilians.
A June report by Human Rights Watch stated that “RSF forces and allied militias have targeted civilians on a large scale based on ethnic identity,” adding that the RSF carried out “widespread sexual violence, including gang rapes, looting, destruction of towns and villages—often through deliberate arson and looting of humanitarian supplies.” The International Court of Justice has documented evidence of war crimes in Sudan.
Atrocities Meant to “Break Morale”
UN expert Marina Peter warned that “the same pattern seen in other parts of Sudan is now repeating in El Fasher,” citing drug use among fighters and the deployment of child soldiers. She explained that “the RSF uses systematic terror to break morale—through the rape of women and even men—and has dug trenches around the city to prevent escape, deliberately aiming to starve the population. Human lives simply do not count in this war.”
Arjan Hehenkamp, Sudan crisis coordinator for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), echoed this assessment, writing: “Those fleeing El Fasher are coming from hell. They’ve lost everything—arriving with nothing but their clothes, many in severe psychological distress and desperate for protection and hope.” He warned that the Tawila camp “is already over capacity, and without a major scale-up in aid, the suffering will only deepen.”
The Violence Spreads to North Kordofan
Tom Fletcher expressed concern over the spillover of violence into neighboring North Kordofan, reporting “intense fighting causing new waves of displacement.”
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Africa Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee cited reports of “widespread atrocities committed by RSF forces in Bara, North Kordofan, following their recent capture of the town,” confirming “at least 50 civilians killed in recent days.”
She added that drone strikes from both sides are now hitting new regions, including Blue Nile State, Khartoum, Sennar, South Kordofan, and West Darfur evidence that the conflict is expanding dramatically. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for the “immediate cessation of hostilities,” warning that Sudan is teetering on the edge of total collapse.
Looming State Collapse
Amid daily civilian suffering, mass displacement, and ethnic massacres, international observers warn that the protracted conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF is pushing the country toward irreversible breakdown.
As UN expert Marina Peter put it plainly, “With every passing day of this war, the risk of Sudan’s collapse becomes more tangible a tragedy unfolding in plain sight while the world remains silent.”
