Paramilitary rapid support forces are collecting bodies after the deadly takeover of North Darfur’s capital, US researchers say.
Researchers at Yale University in the US say the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is digging mass graves in El Fasher, a city in Sudan’s western Darfur region that has seen mass killings and displacement since the RSF took power last month.
Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Institute for Humanitarian Studies at the Yale School of Public Health, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that RSF “started digging mass graves and collecting bodies across the city.”
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“They are cleaning up a massacre,” Raymond said.
RSF took control of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, on October 26, following the withdrawal of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), which has been fighting militias for control of Sudan since April 2023.
More than 70,000 people have fled the city and surrounding areas since the RSF took over, according to the United Nations, with witnesses and human rights groups reporting cases of “summary executions,” sexual violence, and massacres of civilians.
An October 28 report from Yale University’s Humanitarian Institute also found evidence of “mass killings” since the RSF took control of El Fasher, including obvious pools of blood seen on satellite images.
United Nations officials also warned this week that thousands of people are believed to be trapped in El Fasher.
“The current insecurity continues to impede access and prevent us from providing life-saving aid to those trapped in the city without food, water or medical care,” said Jacqueline Wilma Parlebrito, Sudan’s senior official at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Sudanese journalist Abdallah Hussein explained that El Fasher was already reeling from an 18-month siege by militia groups before the RSF took full control.
“No aid was allowed to enter the city and no medical facilities were operational,” Hussein told Al Jazeera from Sudan’s capital Khartoum on Tuesday. “The situation is even worse for the people who remain locked up.”
Amid global condemnation, the RSF and its supporters have sought to downplay the atrocities committed in El Fasher, blaming allied armed groups.
RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedi, also promised an investigation.
But Raymond, from the Humanitarian Institute, said: “If we really want to do an investigation, we need to pull out of the city, get UN staff, Red Cross and humanitarian workers in… and go door to door looking for who is still alive.”
“At this point, we cannot let the RSF investigate on their own,” he said.
Raymond added that based on UN statistics and what can be observed on the ground in El Fasher, “more people may have died[in 10 days]than have died in the last two years of war in Gaza.”
“That’s what we’re talking about, we’re not exaggerating,” he told Al Jazeera, stressing that thousands of people are in need of emergency aid.
Since October 7, 2023, more than 68,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza.
