UN Human Rights Office: Violations by the Rapid Support Forces in El Fasher amount to war crimes

The Human Rights Office said that based on interviews with more than 140 victims and witnesses, conducted in the northern state of Sudan and eastern Chad in late 2025, the office documented more than 6,000 deaths in the first three days of the Rapid Support Forces attack on the city, the capital of North Darfur state, after 18 months of continuous siege.

The office’s report also estimated that at least 4,400 people were killed inside El Fasher during those few days, and more than 1,600 others on the exit roads as they fled, indicating that the actual death toll during the week-long attack is much higher.

The report published by the office on Friday concluded that the Rapid Support Forces and its affiliated Arab militias carried out widespread attacks, including mass killings, summary executions, sexual violence, kidnappings for ransom, torture and ill-treatment, arrests, disappearances, looting, and the use of children in hostilities.

He added that in many cases, attacks targeted civilians and people hors de combat, based on their ethnic origin or alleged affiliations.

Impunity

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said:The deliberate violations committed by the Rapid Support Forces and its affiliated Arab militias in the recent attack on El Fasher confirm that continued impunity fuels ongoing cycles of violence.”.

He called for credible and impartial investigations to determine criminal responsibility, including the responsibility of commanders and other senior officials, leading to true accountability for the perpetrators of extremely serious crimes, through all available means.

In detail, the report said that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the Rapid Support Forces and its affiliated Arab militias committed acts that amount to war crimes, including murder, directing deliberate attacks against civilians and civilian objects, launching indiscriminate attacks, using starvation of civilians as a method of war, attacks directed against medical and humanitarian workers, and engaging in sexual violence including rape, torture and other cruel treatment, and acts of looting, as well as recruiting and using children in hostilities.

A call for action to avoid a repeat of what happened in El Fasher

The High Commissioner for Human Rights said: “The unprecedented scale, intensity and brutality of the violence inflicted during the attack has greatly exacerbated the horrific abuses to which the residents of El Fasher had already been subjected during the long months of siege, hostilities and constant bombardment.”.

Turk referred to his recent visit to Sudan, where he heard direct testimonies from survivors showing how sexual violence was systematically used as a weapon of war.

The UN official renewed his call to the parties to the conflict to take effective steps to stop all serious violations committed by the forces under their command, and to influential countries to take urgent action to prevent the recurrence of the violations documented in El Fasher.

He also urged countries to do everything in their power to support local, regional and international mediation efforts, in order to reach a cessation of hostilities and establish a path towards comprehensive civilian rule.