Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during its campaign to seize El Fasher in North
Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during its campaign to seize El Fasher in North Darfur state, Amnesty International said in a major new report released Wednesday.
The report, titled City Under Siege, Children Under Fire: Rapid Support Forces’ Crimes Against Humanity in North Darfur, documents abuses committed against civilians in and around El Fasher between early 2024 and October 2025, as the RSF fought the Sudanese Armed Forces and allied Joint Forces for control of the region.
Amnesty said the crimes included murder, forcible transfer, imprisonment, torture, rape, sexual slavery, enslavement, extermination and persecution.
The rights group interviewed 247 people for the report, including 208 survivors, 169 of them adults and 39 children, who experienced or witnessed conflict-related abuses.
It found that RSF fighters frequently used the term “falangay,” referring to slavery or servitude, when attacking civilians from non-Arab ethnic groups, particularly the Zaghawa community.
Amnesty said the RSF maintained a siege on El Fasher from May 2024 to October 2025, restricting food and humanitarian supplies while shelling the city almost daily, conditions that contributed to famine and forced residents to survive on ambaz, a peanut oil by-product typically used as animal feed.
When the RSF launched its final offensive on October 26, 2025, civilians attempting to flee encountered a 57-kilometre network of earth berms, where hundreds were allegedly executed and many others tortured or detained. Nearly all of the 70 survivors interviewed about the final assault reported witnessing executions, rape, torture or hostage-taking.
Amnesty Secretary General Agnes Callamard described the atrocities as a stain on the conscience of humanity, and said children were deliberately targeted rather than being collateral damage, suffering killings, injuries, rape, abduction and forced recruitment on a massive scale.
The organisation called for an immediate nationwide ceasefire and the urgent deployment of an international force to protect civilians, alongside continued support for accountability mechanisms including the International Criminal Court.
It also urged all countries to halt arms transfers to parties in the conflict and expand the UN arms embargo beyond Darfur to cover the whole of Sudan.
The war between the RSF and the Sudanese army has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 12 million since fighting broke out in April 2023, making it the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
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