The United Nations’ independent fact-finding mission on Sudan said Thursday that the paramilitary siege and takeover of el-Fasher showed hallmarks of genocide.
Its investigation concluded that the Rapid Support Forces' (RSF) seizure of the Darfur city last October had inflicted "three days of absolute horror," and called for those responsible to be brought to justice.
"The scale, coordination and public endorsement of the operation by senior RSF leadership demonstrate that the crimes committed in and around el-Fasher were not random excesses of war," said the mission's chairman Mohamad Chande Othman.
"They formed part of a planned and organized operation that bears the defining characteristics of genocide," he added.
Since April 2023, the conflict between Sudan's army and the paramilitary RSF has killed tens of thousands and forced 11 million people to flee their homes. It has triggered what the U.N. calls one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
The U.N. Human Rights Council established the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan in October 2023 to begin gathering evidence of violations.
After the RSF captured el-Fasher – following an 18-month siege – the council tasked the mission with probing alleged atrocities surrounding the takeover.
Its investigation concluded that thousands of people, particularly the Zaghawa, "were killed, raped or disappeared."
The Zaghawa is the non-Arab ethnic group to which Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno belongs.
The mission interviewed 320 witnesses and victims from el-Fasher and the surrounding areas, including on investigative visits to Chad and South Sudan.
It authenticated, verified and corroborated 25 videos.
Survivors spoke of widespread killings, including indiscriminate shootings and mass executions at exit points. They described seeing roads filled with the bodies of men, women and children, the mission said.
The report also detailed detention, torture, humiliation, extortion, ransom and disappearances. Widespread sexual violence targeted women and girls from non-Arab communities, particularly the Zaghawa, it added.
"Women and girls ranging from 7 to 70 years old, including pregnant women, were subjected to rape."
The investigators said widespread rape, mass and gang rape, "began immediately following the takeover of el-Fasher."
Many survivors reported being raped in front of their relatives, the report said, with sexual violence frequently accompanied by extreme physical brutality.
"In one case, a 12-year-old girl was raped by three RSF fighters in front of her mother, shortly after her father had been killed while trying to protect her. The girl later died from her injuries," it said.
Rape was often committed in locations where mass killings had taken place, including at el-Saudi Hospital and at el-Fasher University.
"Witnesses recounted the RSF violently and publicly gang-raping at least 19 women in rooms filled with corpses, including the remains of their own husbands," the report said.
Concluding that the RSF had acted "with genocidal intent, the mission found "at least three underlying acts of genocide were committed."
These included killing members of a protected ethnic group and causing serious bodily or mental harm.
The documented evidence "leaves only one reasonable inference," said investigator Mona Rishmawi.
"The RSF acted with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Zaghawa and Fur communities in el-Fasher. These are the hallmarks of genocide."
The mission said such levels of atrocity had been reached because the perpetrators acted with impunity.
It said that as the conflict's focus shifts from Darfur to Kordofan, countries "must act decisively to prevent further atrocities", hold perpetrators to account, and "bring an end to this senseless violence."
The report came after Britain, Canada and the European Union Wednesday denounced possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan during the nearly three-year war.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper called the el-Fasher report's documented atrocities "truly horrific."
She said she would raise the findings at the U.N. Security Council in New York later Thursday, demanding urgent international action and criminal investigations.
"Most important of all, we need global action and pressure in pursuit of a cease-fire, and essential humanitarian access with support for survivors," she added.
