RSF committed crimes against humanity in Sudan's el-Fasher, Amnesty says

RSF committed crimes against humanity in Sudan's el-Fasher, Amnesty says Submitted by MEE staff on Wed, 07/01/2026 - 19:47 Children were deliberately recruited, raped, and killed, the report said, confirming findings by other organisations Displaced Sudanese who escaped el-Fasher sit in the shade at the Rwanda camp reception point, in Tawila, Sudan, on 17 December 2025 (STR/AFP) Off Amnesty International has concluded that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan have committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in North Darfur state's el-Fasher, a report released on Wednesday showed. The findings support mounting evidence from the past year that the RSF carried out widespread atrocities in its 18-month siege of el-Fasher, based on an analysis of images and videos by Middle East Eye. Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, called the findings of the new report "a stain on the conscience of humanity". "Children were not collateral damage of this violence - often, they were deliberately targeted and have suffered immensely. They have been killed, injured, raped, abducted, and forcibly recruited on a massive scale," she said in a statement. “A nationwide ceasefire is immediately needed," the statement added, and also called for an independent international force to be deployed to Sudan. Amnesty found that non-Arab communities, particularly the Zaghawa ethnic group, were deliberately targeted, and that investigators documented the use of ethnic slurs and references to slavery - such as "falangay" - during those attacks. The RSF also burned villages after residents fled in order to prevent their return, actions Amnesty said are consistent with ethnic cleansing. The organisation relied on interviews with 247 people, the vast majority of whom witnessed or experienced violent abuses in North Darfur state, which borders Libya and Chad. Among them were nine men who were held in Mina al-Bari detention centre, on the eastern outskirts of el-Fasher, for periods of up to five months between mid-2024 and early 2026, Amnesty said. They said they were detained in shipping containers, which were kept closed most of the time, and so the stifling heat and minimal air circulation made it difficult to breathe. "My body was [drying out] completely, other people as well as myself lost consciousness," one man recounted. "[The RSF] thought we had died, so they just threw us out of the container. After a while, they realized we were still alive. They tortured us again and took us [back] inside the container." International community Amnesty's report identifies three RSF leaders it accused of "serious violations of international law". They include RSF commander Al-Fateh Abdullah Idris, known by his nom de guerre Abu Lulu, who has been seen on video executing captives wearing civilian clothing. Senior RSF commanders identified at the Mina al-Bari detention facility include Major General Gedo Hamdan Ahmed Mohamed, known by his nom de guerre Abu Shouk, and Lieutenant Colonel Abbas Khater Bakhit, both of whom are reported to have tortured captives. "The international community must move beyond statements of concern," Callamard said. She blamed humanitarian funding cuts by high-income countries - a move spurred by the return of the Trump administration to power in the US last year - and the lack of support for accountability mechanisms such as the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC), both of which have been undermined and threatened, with US sanctions targeting officials from the international bodies. Sudan remains the site of the largest continuous humanitarian and displacement crisis in the world, the non-profit Refugees International said last month. During the siege of el-Fasher from May 2024 until October 2025, famine also spread quickly, forcing families to consume ambaz, a byproduct of peanut oil production normally used as animal feed, the report said. UAE and US role The Janjaweed , which carried out genocide in Darfur more than two decades ago, is where the RSF finds its roots. In March 2025, based on intelligence shared by the former Biden administration, Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen introduced a bill to stem Washington's inadvertent pipeline to the RSF. How the UAE continued supporting Sudan's RSF through Haftar and Libya Read More » It was blocked by Republicans some six months later, just after the RSF moved into el-Fasher and took over the Sudanese military's outpost. Since the civil war began in April 2023, Washington - under two different administrations - has continuously authorised weapons sales to its ally Abu Dhabi. The UAE hosts the Al-Dhafra Air Base and has cultivated particularly close ties with the Trump family. Though Emirati officials deny it, extensive reporting from MEE using satellite imagery, flight and ship tracking data, video evidence, weapons serial numbers and multiple sources from across the region indicates that the UAE has supplied weapons to the RSF throughout the war. Late last year, Sudan's ambassador to the US, Mohamed Abdalla Idris, citing a bipartisan effort led by Idaho Republican Senator Jim Risch, called on the Trump administration to designate the RSF as a terrorist organisation to spur sanctions, and by extension, a call to action to protect its victims. "Boko Haram was designated. Al-Qaeda was designated. IS was designated... why not the Janjaweed? What the Janjaweed are doing is far even worse than what some of those organisations have done," he said. Sexual violence Amnesty's findings follow a UN report that last month said the RSF is responsible for the majority of sexual crimes committed by warring parties in Sudan over the past three years. The trend analysis report on conflict-related sexual violence in Sudan since the outbreak of war between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in April 2023 found that rape, gang rape and sexual slavery have been used systematically as weapons of war, and warned that impunity risks entrenching cycles of violence for years to come. UN: RSF used rape and sexual slavery as weapons of war in Sudan since 2023 Read More » Around 87 percent of verified incidents were attributed to men in RSF uniforms, its affiliates and allied Arab militias. Incidents were also attributed to the SAF, affiliated security actors, the Joint Forces and other armed movements. MEE has reported extensively on the RSF's primary financial and logistical backer, the UAE. Despite the pressure brought on Abu Dhabi by the US-Israel war on Iran and an Egyptian bombing campaign targeting RSF weapons convoys that originate in Libya, the UAE and Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) are still supporting the Sudanese paramilitary group. Fighters from the RSF are also being trained to use weapons supplied by the UAE at military camps across Libya, a joint investigation from Lighthouse Reports, Sudan War Monitor, and Evident revealed on Monday. Defectors from the RSF and sources from the LAAF said that the five camps identified by investigators were also used to provide the Sudanese paramilitary with logistical support, including fuel and pickup trucks. That same day, a coalition of rights groups requested that the ICC investigate the role of high-level officials from the UAE and Sudan’s neighbouring countries in allegedly aiding and abetting atrocity crimes in Darfur. The submission was filed on Monday by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and a broad coalition of legal, investigative and civil society organisations. Sudan war News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0