UN Says Sudan's RSF Siege of Al Fashir Bears "Hallmarks of Genocide"

(MENAFN) An independent United Nations fact-finding mission has determined that actions carried out by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during the siege and fall of Al Fashir bear "hallmarks of genocide," according to a report published Thursday.

The mission documented evidence of systematic ethnic targeting, mass killings, widespread sexual violence, torture, and deliberately imposed living conditions designed to destroy non-Arab communities — particularly the Zaghawa and Fur peoples — in and around Al Fashir during late October 2025.

The RSF overran Al Fashir on October 26 after an 18-month siege that, the report found, "systematically weakened the targeted population through starvation, deprivation, trauma and confinement." The city had served as the last significant stronghold of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in North Darfur.

Survivor testimony gathered by investigators described RSF fighters raping women and girls between the ages of seven and 70, including pregnant women. "In one case, a 12-year-old girl was raped by three Rapid Support Forces fighters in front of her mother, shortly after her father had been killed while trying to protect her," the investigators stated.

In one of the report's most harrowing accounts, two survivors told the mission that an RSF commander identified as Abu Lulu asked a pregnant woman how far along she was in her pregnancy. When she replied "seven months," he fired seven bullets into her abdomen.

Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the mission, said the evidence points to a deliberate, organized campaign rather than isolated battlefield excess. "The scale, coordination, and public endorsement of the operation by senior RSF leadership demonstrate that the crimes committed in and around Al Fasher were not random excesses of war," he said, adding that they were part of "a planned and organized operation that bears the defining characteristics of genocide."

The battle for Al Fashir was part of the broader civil war that erupted in April 2023 between the RSF and the SAF across Darfur, Sudan's vast western region. A prior UN Human Rights Office report estimated that more than 6,000 people were killed in the opening days of the RSF's assault on the city alone.

In response to the mission's findings, the United States announced sanctions against three RSF commanders. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued a stark warning alongside the measures: "We will not tolerate this ongoing campaign of terror and senseless killing in Sudan." He further cautioned that the conflict risks destabilizing the broader region and "creating conditions for terrorist groups to grow and threaten the safety and interests" of the US.

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