Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Turkiye and Jordan have condemned abuses carried out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during the occupation of Sudan’s El Fasher city, as further evidence of mass killings in the strategic region has come to light.
Tuesday’s accusations came as Yale University researchers said satellite images of El Fasher taken after RSF’s entry showed a mass of objects matching the size of a human body and large areas of red discoloration on the ground.
Recommended stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
RSF has been embroiled in a bloody civil war with Sudanese forces since 2023, a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 12 million.
Militia took control of El Fasher, the military’s last stronghold in Darfur, on Sunday after a 17-month siege.
The Sudanese government has said at least 2,000 people have been killed in the city since then, while aid agencies say they have received credible reports of atrocities including summary executions, attacks on civilians along evacuation routes, and door-to-door raids.
Sexual violence, particularly against women and girls, has also been reported in the city.
El Fasher’s ouster has given the RSF almost complete control over vast swaths of Darfur, raising fears that Sudan will split again more than a decade after the country was founded.
regional alert
This development is worrying local authorities.
In a statement on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia expressed “deep concern and condemnation of the gross human rights violations” and called on the RSF to fulfill its responsibility to protect Sudanese civilians.
Egypt, which borders Sudan, called for “all possible measures to be taken to immediately achieve a humanitarian ceasefire across Sudan” and reaffirmed its continued commitment to “provide all assistance” to help its neighbor overcome the current crisis.
Turkiye called for an immediate end to hostilities in El Fasher, while also calling for “safe passage, unhindered provision of humanitarian aid and an end to attacks on innocent civilians,” Anadolu Agency reported.
It also condemned “the atrocities committed against civilians in El Fasher” and “stressed the importance of dialogue to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.”
Qatar also condemned the “horrible violations” in El Fasher and called for dialogue to resolve the crisis.
Egypt, Turkiye and Qatar all reiterated their “firm support for Sudan’s unity, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” and Cairo said it rejected “any attempts to divide Sudan or undermine its unity and territorial integrity.”
Jordan joined the chorus of concern, condemning violations against civilians in a statement and stressing “the urgent need for restraint and the implementation of a ceasefire to protect civilian lives.”
RSF did not mention the allegations against it.
The militia evolved from the notorious government-backed and affiliated militia known as the Janjaweed, which committed genocide during the Darfur conflict in the 2000s. The US has also declared that the RSF and its allies have committed genocide in the current war.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in comments in Malaysia on Monday that the fall of El Fasher marked a “terrible escalation” of the war and called for an end to foreign military aid to the parties to the conflict.
“The problem is not just fighting between the military and rapid support forces, but also increasing external interference that undermines prospects for a ceasefire and a political solution,” he was quoted as saying by a UN spokesperson.
Guterres did not name any specific countries, but the Sudanese government and rights groups have repeatedly accused the United Arab Emirates of being involved in the war by supplying arms to the RSF, an allegation the Gulf state denies.
unprecedented violence
Separately on Tuesday, the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Laboratory released a report based on satellite imagery that said RSF forces “allegedly committed mass murder” after occupying El Fasher.
Using images taken by the Airbus on Monday, the institute pointed out a series of scenes in the Daraja Oula district of El Fasher.
They sent what appeared to be trucks with guns, known as “technicians,” onto the streets in convoys that looked like barricades.
“Image analysis revealed human-sized objects on the ground near the RSF vehicle, including at least five reddish ground discolorations,” the report said.
Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of Yale University’s Humanitarian Institute, said the violence in El Fasher was unprecedented.
“The scale is enormous, from the earthworks and walls that now surround El Fasher, to specific areas such as Daraja Oura, to hospitals and humanitarian aid facilities. As seen in high-resolution satellite images, we are seeing objects lying horizontally, measuring 1.5 to 2 meters (5 to 6.5 feet), the standard length of a human body,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Those objects weren’t there 36 to 48 hours ago. Now they’re scattered all over the city.”
Raymond said the brutality was not surprising.
“Both the Humanitarian Institute in Darfur and many other colleague organizations, especially the local response community, have been warning in excruciating detail about this genocidal activity that we are now seeing in El Fasher,” he said.
Researchers warned that the killings were a harbinger of what could happen in other parts of Darfur and North Kordofan province as RSF forces move east of the country following the fall of El Fasher.
The Humanitarian Institute added in its report that RSF’s actions “may be consistent with war crimes and crimes against humanity (CAH) and may rise to the level of genocide.”
He added: “The world must take immediate action and put maximum pressure on the RSF and its supporters, especially the UAE, to end the killings now.”
