Human Rights Centers Condemn the Horrific Massacres in El Fasher and Bara

The Sudanese Observatory for Human Rights and the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) have condemned the horrific massacres in El Fasher and Bara, calling for the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor to expedite investigations.

Below is the full text of the statement as obtained by Mashawir:

> “The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have opened a new bloody chapter in Sudan’s history. After starving the people of El Fasher through a nearly two-year siege — during which countless crimes were committed against civilians in the city and surrounding displacement camps — these forces and their allies have now unleashed atrocities that shock the human conscience. On October 26 and 27, the RSF stormed El Fasher and carried out large-scale killings and looting.”

Initial reports from El Fasher indicate that large numbers of unarmed civilians, most of them women, children, and the elderly, were executed in blatant violation of international humanitarian law.

The statement added:

> “Members of the RSF militias filmed their crimes and published them publicly — clear proof of their utter disregard for international law and their entrenched sense of impunity.”

According to the organizations, what is happening in El Fasher and what simultaneously occurred in Bara, North Kordofan — where RSF forces reportedly carried out bloody attacks on civilians — is not a series of isolated incidents in a conflict but a systematic pattern of scorched-earth and ethnic-cleansing policies.

In El Fasher, the RSF began with a starvation siege, weaponizing hunger, then deliberately targeted hospitals, displacement centers, and civilian infrastructure with drone and artillery strikes, culminating in the storming of the city and mass killings based on identity.

In Bara, credible reports indicate that after the Sudanese Armed Forces withdrew, RSF units conducted mass executions of civilians amid a total communications blackout — suggesting even more atrocities may have occurred out of sight.

> “With the RSF’s capture of El Fasher and Bara, every civilian casualty underscores the collapse of the final illusion of international will. The world has stood by issuing warnings while the machinery of death advanced unchecked,” the statement said, describing this as a dangerous failure to respond to grave crimes.

The statement concluded with the following points:

Strong condemnation of the war crimes and acts of ethnic cleansing committed by the RSF in El Fasher and the massacre in Bara. The organizations hold the RSF and all its allies — including the “Tasis” Alliance — fully legally and morally responsible for these atrocities.

A call on the UN Security Council and the African Union to take immediate, concrete, and effective action to stop the killings and ensure urgent protection for civilians trapped in El Fasher, Bara, and across Kordofan.

Condemnation of all regional and international actors continuing to provide military or political support to the RSF, particularly the United Arab Emirates and some neighboring countries, in clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1591, which prohibits arms transfers to Darfur. The statement stresses that such support makes these states complicit in the ongoing crimes.

A renewed appeal to the ICC Prosecutor to accelerate and expand ongoing investigations to include crimes committed in El Fasher and to issue arrest warrants against military commanders and anyone involved in planning, financing, arming, or otherwise supporting forces responsible for these atrocities.

The organizations warned that continued impunity for previous RSF crimes — in Geneina, Zalingei, Gezira, Khartoum, East Gezira, Sennar, and Blue Nile — has fostered an environment conducive to repeated atrocities, emboldening the militia to commit the massacres in El Fasher and Bara.

They stressed that any further international inaction would amount to implicit authorization for more mass killings and atrocities, entrenching a culture of impunity.

Finally, both organizations affirmed their commitment to continue documenting violations accurately and professionally, emphasizing that “these crimes do not expire, and accountability is inevitable.”