Survivors Detail Ongoing Detentions in El-Fasher

One year after the Rapid Support Forces seized control of el-Fasher, survivors report that violence and detention continue within the city.

Hala, a woman who returned to el-Fasher from the Tawila refugee camp three weeks ago, said RSF fighters questioned her upon arrival and issued a handwritten entry permit. The following day, soldiers addressed her in the street using abusive language. She stated that fighters spared her from physical attack only because other civilians were present. "There is no security in el-Fasher at all," Hala told the campaign group Avaaz. She has since returned to Tawila and said she will not go back.

The RSF launched its final offensive on October 26, 2025, ending a siege of more than 500 days. Researchers at Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab compared the speed and scale of the killing to the Rwandan genocide. About 260,000 people were inside the city when the assault began. Monitoring groups using satellite imagery counted at least 6,000 dead in the first 72 hours. Mohamed Hassan, a survivor, said fighters executed men they judged to be army soldiers. Close to 500 people were killed at the Saudi Maternity Hospital, where displaced families and staff had sheltered.

Yale researchers identified 150 clusters of objects consistent with human remains between October 26 and November 28, 2025. Twenty of these sites showed signs of burning, and 57 vanished within four weeks. In the North Kordofan town of Bara, volunteers recovered more than 600 bodies from 200 mass graves this week. Witnesses said the victims were civilians killed during the October offensive. The RSF has maintained a communications blackout in el-Fasher and barred human rights investigators from the city.

RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo announced an investigation into violations by his troops. A UN team that entered the city in December under close supervision described el-Fasher as a crime scene. One in six people screened by the team had severe acute malnutrition. A doctor who worked inside an el-Fasher hospital for nearly two years reported that generators ran for only two hours a night. Emergency surgeries were performed by phone flashlight as antibiotics and gauze ran out. The World Food Programme reported that residents survived on animal fodder and food waste.

Displacement remains widespread, with Tawila hosting around 800,000 people, most from el-Fasher. Survivors say the RSF still detains fleeing men and demands ransoms of up to $3,000. Khadijah, an elderly woman from el-Geneina, said she lives under a tree on a farm with little food and no shelter. Mudathir Mohammed Diqourni of an el-Fasher resistance committee said RSF militias are destroying farms and killing farmers in South and Central Darfur. The UN fact-finding mission concluded in February that the RSF committed acts of genocide in el-Fasher.

The UN mission found reasonable grounds to believe that private companies and recruiters based in the UAE routed weapons through Chad, southeastern Libya, and Bosaso in Somalia. Mona Rishmawi, a member of the mission, said the supplies included weapons, drone-related equipment, logistical help, and personnel. The United States remains the UAE's top weapons supplier, and British weaponry has been found on Sudanese battlefields.