Sudan: ‘Hallmarks of genocide’ found in El Fasher, UN investigators detail mass killings and ethnic targeting

In a report released on Thursday, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan said the evidence establishes that at least three underlying acts of genocide were committed: “killing members of a protected ethnic group; causing serious bodily and mental harm; and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction in whole or in part.”

“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 Mohamed Chande Othman, Chair of the mission.

“They formed part of a planned and organized operation that bears the defining characteristics of genocide.”

500-day siege

The findings focus on events in and around El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, during the RSF takeover in late October 2025, after what the mission described as an 18-month siege that progressively cut off civilians from food, water, medical supplies and humanitarian assistance.

The report said the siege “systematically weakened the targeted population through starvation, deprivation, trauma and confinement,” leaving many unable to flee when the assault came.

The Sudan conflict erupted on 15 April 2023, when fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and their former allies – the paramilitary RSF. The war has since spread across large swathes of the country, with civilians repeatedly bearing the brunt of urban warfare, shifting front lines and the collapse of basic services.

The fact-finding mission said the conduct in El Fasher was “an aggravation of earlier patterns” of attacks on other non-Arab communities elsewhere in Sudan, “but on a far more lethal scale.”

Genocidal intent ‘the reasonable inference’

Genocidal intent, the mission said, was “the only reasonable inference” from the RSF’s “systematic pattern of ethnically targeted killings, sexual violence, destruction, and public statements explicitly calling for the elimination of non-Arab communities.”

Survivors cited RSF fighters as saying: “Is there anyone Zaghawa among you? If we find Zaghawa, we will kill them all”; and “We want to eliminate anything black from Darfur.”

Starvation, denial of assistance, mass killings, rape, torture and enforced disappearance … leaves only one reasonable inference – these are the hallmarks of genocide

“The body of evidence we collected – including the prolonged siege, starvation and denial of humanitarian assistance, followed by mass killings, rape, torture and enforced disappearance, systematic humiliation and perpetrators’ own declarations – leaves only one reasonable inference,” said mission member 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,” she added.

The Zaghawa and Fur are among the largest non-Arab ethnic communities in Sudan’s western Darfur region. Both groups have historically faced discrimination and were heavily targeted during earlier waves of violence in Darfur beginning in the early 2000s. Many families in and around El Fasher had already been displaced multiple times before the current conflict.

No action despite many warnings

The report describes identity-based targeting linked to ethnicity, gender and perceived political affiliation as a central element of the operation, including the selective targeting of Zaghawa and Fur women and girls during sexual violence, while women perceived as Arab were often spared.

The mission also pointed to repeated warnings and “clearly identified atrocity risk indicators” preceding the takeover, including international calls from mid-2024 for the siege to end and civilians to be protected. “Despite these warnings, no effective measures were taken by any party to protect the civilian population,” it said.

With the conflict expanding to other regions, including Kordofan, the mission warned that urgent civilian protection is needed “now more than ever.” Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, another mission member, said the conduct in El Fasher was “an acute manifestation of patterns consistent with genocidal violence.”

Hold perpetrators to account

In the absence of effective prevention and accountability, the mission assessed that the “risk of further genocidal acts remains serious and ongoing.”

“Perpetrators at all levels of authority must be held accountable,” Mr. Othman said. “Where evidence indicates genocide, the international community has a heightened obligation to prevent, protect and ensure justice is done.”

The fact-finding mission was established by the UN Human Rights Council in October 2023 and mandated to investigate alleged human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law in the conflict, including identifying – where possible – those responsible.

The report will be presented to the Human Rights Council on 26 February 2026.