‘Like a scene from a horror movie’: UN report warns of war crimes in Sudan’s El Fasher

“Continued impunity fuels ongoing cycles of violence,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, calling for credible investigations and accountability for perpetrators.

Sudan’s national army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia have been fighting each other for control of the country for almost three years. The new report details the widespread atrocities committed during the RSF attack on the besieged town of El Fasher in North Darfur.

The RSF and allied Arab militias carried out mass killings and summary executions, sexual violence, kidnappings for ransom, torture and ill-treatment, detention, disappearances, plunder and the use of children in hostilities. Many attacks were against civilians and individuals out of order based on ethnicity or perceived kinship.

Documented atrocities

Based on hundreds of interviews with victims and witnesses in late 2025, OHCHR documented more than 6,000 murders in the first three days of the RSF offensive. However, the report warns that the overall death toll during the weeks-long offensive is “undoubtedly significantly higher.”

The report showed that in one incident about 500 people were killed when RSF fighters opened fire with heavy weapons on October 26 on a crowd of 1,000 people sheltering in the Al-Rashid dormitory at El Fasher University. One of the witnesses reported seeing bodies thrown into the air.”like a scene from a horror movie”.

RSF fighters also carried out summary executions in El Fasher of civilians, targeting young boys and men under 50, accused of ‘collaboration’ with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Joint Forcesoften determined by their non-Arab ethnicity, such as the Zaghawa community.

Survivors and witnesses spoke patterns of rape and gang rape, kidnappings for ransom using sexual violence, and sexual assault during invasive searches, involving women and girls from Zaghawa and other non-Arab communities is at particular risk.

Possible crimes against humanity

According to the report, the violations at El Fasher mirror other RSF offensives during the war, such as in the Zamzam camp in April 2025. The “organized and sustained course of conduct” suggested a systematic attack on the civilian population in the Darfur region.

“The acts of violence knowingly committed as part of such an attack would amount to crimes against humanityy,” said OHCHR.

Calls for justice

Mr Türk urged the parties to the conflict to end violations by forces under their command and called on states with influence to do so help prevent further atrocitiesincluding by respecting the arms embargo and stopping the supply of weapons.

He called on States to do everything possible to support local, regional and international mediation efforts, to end hostilities and pave a path to inclusive civilian governance.

“In a protection crisis of this magnitude, human rights must remain at the heart of efforts to achieve a lasting resolution to the conflict,” he said.