The UN’s impartial fact-finding mission on Sudan mentioned on Thursday (February 19, 2026) the siege and seize of El-Fasher by a paramilitary group bore “the hallmarks of genocide”.
Its investigation concluded that the Fast Help Forces’ (RSF) seizure of the town in Darfur final October had inflicted “three days of absolute horror”, and known as for these accountable to be delivered to justice.
It comes the identical week as drone strikes reportedly killed dozens throughout Sudan’s Kordofan area, the place the UN has usually warned of comparable atrocities unfolding.
At the very least 15 youngsters had been killed in a drone strike on a displacement camp in West Kordofan this week, UNICEF mentioned, whereas native rights defenders mentioned one other strike on a market killed 28 folks in North Kordofan.
The West Kordofan strike has been blamed on the Sudanese military, whereas the RSF has been accused over the North Kordofan assault.
The mission warned that “pressing safety of civilians is required, now greater than ever,” in Kordofan, the flashpoint of preventing for the reason that RSF’s seize of El-Fasher, which was marked by ethnic massacres, sexual violence and detention.
“The dimensions, coordination, and public endorsement of the operation by senior RSF management display that the crimes dedicated in and round El-Fasher weren’t random excesses of warfare,” mentioned the mission’s chairman Mohamad Chande Othman.
“They fashioned a part of a deliberate and organised operation that bears the defining traits of genocide.”
Since April 2023, the battle between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary RSF has killed tens of 1000’s, and compelled 11 million folks to flee their properties. It has triggered what the UN calls one of many world’s worst humanitarian crises.
The UN Human Rights Council established the Unbiased Worldwide Truth-Discovering Mission for the Sudan in October 2023, to start gathering proof of violations.
Its investigation into the takeover of El-Fasher, following an 18-month siege, concluded that 1000’s of individuals, significantly from the Zaghawa ethnic group, “had been killed, raped or disappeared”.
The Zaghawa is likely one of the space’s largest non-Arab ethnic teams.
Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who has been extensively accused of funnelling assist to the RSF on behalf of their patrons, the United Arab Emirates, can also be Zaghawa, which has led to pressure in Deby’s camp throughout the border.
Widespread rape
The mission interviewed 320 witnesses and victims from El-Fasher and the encompassing areas, together with in investigative visits to Chad and South Sudan.
It authenticated, verified and corroborated 25 movies.
Survivors spoke of widespread killings, together with indiscriminate shootings, and mass executions at exit factors. They described seeing roads full of the our bodies of males, girls and youngsters, the mission mentioned.
The report additionally detailed detention, torture, humiliation, extortion, ransom and disappearances. Widespread sexual violence focused girls and ladies from non-Arab communities, significantly the Zaghawa, it added.
“Ladies and ladies starting from seven to 70 years outdated, together with pregnant girls, had been subjected to rape.”
Many survivors reported being raped in entrance of their kin, the report mentioned, with sexual violence often accompanied by excessive bodily brutality.
“In a single case, a 12-year-old lady was raped by three RSF fighters in entrance of her mom, shortly after her father had been killed whereas making an attempt to guard her. The lady later died from her accidents,” it mentioned.
Rape was usually dedicated in places the place mass killings had taken place, together with at El-Saudi Hospital and at El-Fasher College.
“Witnesses recounted the RSF violently and publicly gang-raping not less than 19 girls in rooms full of corpses, together with the stays of their very own husbands,” the report mentioned.
Impunity
Concluding that the RSF had acted “with genocidal intent”, the mission discovered “not less than three underlying acts of genocide had been dedicated”.
These included killing members of a protected ethnic group and inflicting critical bodily or psychological hurt.
“The RSF acted with intent to destroy, in entire or partially, the Zaghawa and Fur communities in El-Fasher. These are the hallmarks of genocide,” mentioned investigator Mona Rishmawi.
The mission mentioned such ranges of atrocity had been reached as a result of the perpetrators acted with impunity.
The report got here after Britain, Canada and the European Union on Wednesday (February 18) denounced doable warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity in Sudan through the practically three-year warfare.
British Overseas Secretary Yvette Cooper known as the El-Fasher report’s documented atrocities “really horrific”.
She mentioned she would elevate the findings on the UN Safety Council in New York in a while Thursday (February 19, 2026), demanding pressing worldwide motion and prison investigations.
Printed – February 19, 2026 08:41 pm IST