United Nations: Hundreds May Have Been Executed During RSF Takeover of El Fasher

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday that hundreds of unarmed civilians and fighters in Sudan may have been killed during the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) takeover of El Fasher, a city that had been under siege for a long time.

The city — the last major stronghold of the Sudanese army in the Darfur region of western Sudan — fell to the RSF last Sunday, ending an 18-month siege.

Speaking at a press briefing in Geneva, Seif Magango, spokesperson for the UN rights office, said:

> “We estimate that hundreds of civilians and detainees were killed during the RSF’s assault on the city, on escape routes, and in the days following its capture.”

He cited testimonies describing summary executions and mass killings.

The RSF has previously denied allegations of committing abuses and has issued counter-accusations against the Sudanese army.

Magango said that tens of thousands of people fled the city amid the chaos and that some testimonies about the atrocities in El Fasher came from survivors who walked three to four days on foot to reach the nearby town of Tawila.

He added that the office had also received accounts from aid workers reporting that at least 25 women were gang-raped when RSF fighters entered a camp for displaced persons near the local university.

> “Witnesses say RSF members selected women and girls and raped them at gunpoint,” Magango told journalists, “forcing the remaining displaced families — around 100 households — to flee under gunfire and intimidation directed especially at the elderly.”