In Sudan&rsquo;s North Darfur, the city of El-Fasher has fallen and with it, perhaps, the last thread of hope for millions trapped in a war that has spiralled into ethnic slaughter.
After 18 months under siege, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stormed El-Fasher last Sunday, toppling the Sudanese Armed Forces&rsquo; (SAF) final stronghold in Darfur. What followed, say rights groups, was a wave of executions, mass killings and sexual violence,&nbsp;atrocities that echo the darkest memories of the Darfur genocide two decades ago.
For months, 1.2 million residents had been trapped inside El-Fasher, surviving on animal feed as the RSF sealed every escape route. When the city fell, thousands were executed in the streets, their bodies now visible in satellite imagery showing &ldquo;clusters&rdquo; of corpses and pools of blood.
&ldquo;The situation in El-Fasher is extremely dire. There are violations taking place on the roads, including looting and shooting, with no distinction between young or old,&rdquo; said one survivor who fled to nearby Tawila, now a hub for displaced civilians.
Witnesses recount RSF fighters separating civilians by gender, shooting men on sight and dragging others away. Hospitals once safe zones, turned into death traps. At Saudi Hospital, nearly 500 people were reportedly killed as the paramilitaries stormed in.
The United Nations Human Rights Office said the attacks bore signs of ethnic targeting, while researchers at Yale&rsquo;s Humanitarian Research Lab described evidence of &ldquo;a systematic and intentional process of ethnic cleansing of indigenous non-Arab communities.&rdquo;
<h3 data-start="2117" data-end="2154">A War With Echoes of the Past</h3>
The RSF, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan &ldquo;Hemedti&rdquo; Dagalo, evolved from the infamous Janjaweed militia&nbsp; Arab fighters accused of massacring Black African tribes in Darfur in the early 2000s. That campaign left between 100,000 and 300,000 dead and millions displaced.
Today&rsquo;s violence mirrors those same tactics. &ldquo;They encircle, starve, weaken, and then annihilate,&rdquo; said human rights experts, describing the RSF&rsquo;s military blueprint as &ldquo;genocide in slow motion.&rdquo; While the RSF claims to be &ldquo;unifying Sudan under true democracy,&rdquo; its forces have been accused of systematic war crimes&nbsp; from mass executions to sexual assaults and village burnings.
Hemedti, under growing international pressure, acknowledged &ldquo;violations&rdquo; in El-Fasher, promising accountability. &ldquo;Any soldier or officer who crossed the line will be arrested, and results will be announced publicly,&rdquo; he said. Yet, observers note similar promises after earlier massacres such as in El-Geneina and Gezira were never fulfilled.
<h3 data-start="3200" data-end="3235">A Country Divided and Dying</h3>
With El-Fasher&rsquo;s fall, Darfur is now entirely under RSF control, while the SAF holds the east. The war, which began in April 2023 over control of power between Hemedti&rsquo;s RSF and Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan&rsquo;s army, has left 40,000 dead and 12 million displaced, according to UN estimates.
Neighbouring cities like Bara and El-Obeid are the next flashpoints. Bara, seized by the RSF days ago, saw aid workers and Red Crescent volunteers executed. Analysts warn that if El-Obeid &mdash; an oil-rich hub linking Darfur to Khartoum falls next,&nbsp;Sudan&rsquo;s partition will be complete.
<h3 data-start="3851" data-end="3888">Global Outrage, Local Silence</h3>
Despite mounting evidence, the international community has failed to intervene decisively. Humanitarian groups liken the siege of El-Fasher to Srebrenica warning this could be Sudan&rsquo;s &ldquo;Sarajevo moment.&rdquo; Nathaniel Raymond of Yale&rsquo;s Humanitarian Research Lab said, &ldquo;We warned repeatedly that El-Fasher would become a site of mass killing. The world had every chance to act and didn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;
Activists are calling for pressure on the United Arab Emirates, accused of supplying weapons to the RSF, a charge the UAE denies. Meanwhile, on the ground, 177,000 civilians remain trapped, caught between hunger, bullets, and the world&rsquo;s indifference.
&ldquo;Whether you&rsquo;re a civilian or not, nowhere is safe in Sudan anymore,&rdquo; said activist Emi Mahmoud. &ldquo;At the flip of a hat, those with guns can imprison, disappear, or kill anyone. The world is watching another genocide unfold, again.&rdquo;

Sudan’s Silent Genocide: El-Fasher Falls

As RSF seizes El-Fasher, Sudan faces its darkest chapter since Darfur’s genocide

Sudan’s Silent Genocide: El-Fasher Falls

As RSF seizes El-Fasher, Sudan faces its darkest chapter since Darfur’s genocide

October 30, 2025 | 16:43 IST