Greater than 6,000 individuals had been killed in over three days when a Sudanese paramilitary group unleashed “a wave of intense violence … surprising in its scale and brutality” in Sudan’s Darfur area in late October, in keeping with the United Nations.
The Fast Help Forces’ offensive to seize town of el-Fasher included widespread atrocities that quantity to conflict crimes and doable crimes in opposition to humanity, the UN Human Rights Workplace mentioned in a report launched on Friday (February 13, 2026).
“The wanton violations that had been perpetrated by the RSF and allied Arab militia within the closing offensive on el-Fasher underscore that persistent impunity fuels continued cycles of violence,” mentioned UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
The RSF and their allied Arab militias, referred to as Janjaweed, overran el-Fasher, the Sudanese Military’s solely remaining stronghold in Darfur, on Oct. 26 and rampaged by town and its environment after greater than 18 months of siege.
The 29-page UN report detailed a set of atrocities that ranged from mass killings and abstract executions, sexual violence, abductions for ransom, torture and ill-treatment to detention and disappearances. In lots of instances, the assaults had been ethnicity-motivated, it mentioned.
The RSF didn’t reply to an e-mailed request for remark.
The paramilitaries’ Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo has beforehand acknowledged abuses by his fighters, however disputed the size of atrocities.
‘Like a scene out of a horror film’
The alleged atrocities in el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur, mirror a sample of RSF conduct in its conflict in opposition to the Sudanese miliary. The conflict started in April 2023 when an influence wrestle between the 2 sides exploded into open preventing within the capital, Khartoum and elsewhere throughout the nation.
The battle created the world’s largest humanitarian disaster with components of the nation pushed into famine. It has additionally been marked by heinous atrocities which the Worldwide Legal Court docket mentioned it was investigating as conflict crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity. The RSF was additionally accused by the Biden administration of finishing up genocide within the ongoing conflict.
The UN Human Rights Workplace mentioned it documented the killing of at the very least 4,400 individuals inside el-Fasher between Oct. 25 and Oct. 27, whereas greater than 1,600 others had been killed as they had been making an attempt to flee the RSF rampage. The report mentioned it drew its toll from interviews with 140 victims and witnesses which had been “are per unbiased evaluation of contemporaneous satellite tv for pc imagery and video footage.” In a single case, RSF fighters opened fireplace from heavy weapons on a crowd of 1,000 individuals sheltering within the Rashid dormitory in el-Fasher college on Oct. 26, killing round 500 individuals, the report mentioned. One witness was quoted as saying that he noticed our bodies thrown into the air, “like a scene out of a horror film,” in keeping with the report.
In one other case, round 600 individuals, together with 50 kids, had been executed on Oct. 26 whereas taking shelter within the college amenities, the report mentioned.
The report, nevertheless, warned that the precise scale of the dying toll of the week-long offensive in el-Fasher was “undoubtedly considerably larger.” The toll doesn’t embody at the very least 460 individuals who had been killed by the RSF on Oct. 28 after they stormed the Saudi Maternity hospital, in keeping with the World Well being Group.
Round 300 individuals had been additionally killed in RSF shelling and drone assaults between Oct. 23 and Oct. 24 within the Abu Shouk camp for displaced individuals, 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) northwest of el-Fasher, the U.N. Human Rights Workplace’ report mentioned.
Girl and ladies sexually assaulted
Sexual violence, together with rape and gang rape, was apparently widespread throughout el-Fasher offensive, with RSF fighters and their allied militias focusing on ladies and ladies from the African Zaghawa non-Arab tribes over allegations of getting hyperlinks or supporting the miliary, the report mentioned.
Türk, who visited Sudan final month, mentioned survivors of sexual violence recounted testimonies that confirmed how the observe “was systematically used as a weapon of conflict.” The paramilitaries additionally kidnapped many individuals whereas making an attempt to flee town, earlier than releasing them after paying ramson. Hundreds have been held in at the very least 10 detention facilities — together with town’s Youngsters Hospital which was changed into a detention facility — run by the RSF in el-Fasher, the report mentioned.
The UN Human Rights Workplace additionally mentioned it documented 10 detention amenities utilized by the paramilitaries in el-Fasher, together with the Youngsters’s Hospital which was changed into a detention middle. A number of hundreds of individuals stay lacking and unaccounted for, the report mentioned.
The sample of the RSF offensive on el-Fasher was a mirror of different assaults by the paramilitaries and their allies on the Zamzam camp for displaced individuals, 15 kilometres south of town, and on West Darfur’s metropolis of Geneina and the close by city of Ardamata in 2023, the UN Human Rights Workplace mentioned.
Mr. Türk mentioned there have been “affordable grounds” that RSF and their allied Arab militias dedicated conflict crimes, and that their acts additionally quantity to crimes in opposition to humanity.
He referred to as for holding these accountable — together with commanders — accountable, warning that “persistent impunity fuels continued cycles of violence.”
Revealed – February 15, 2026 08:18 am IST