UN report: RSF violations during capture of El Fasher amount to war crimes

GENEVA, Feb 13 (KUNA) -- Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have committed widespread atrocities that amount to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during its final offensive to capture the besieged city of El Fasher in Sudan last October, said a recent UN Human Rights Office report released on Friday.
"The wanton violations that were perpetrated by the RSF and allied Arab militia in the final offensive on El Fasher underscore that persistent impunity fuels continued cycles of violence" said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, commenting on the report.
"There must be credible and impartial investigations to establish criminal responsibility including of commanders and other superiors. These must lead to meaningful accountability for perpetrators of exceptionally serious crimes through all available means whether fair and independent Sudanese courts use of universal and extraterritorial jurisdiction in third states before the International Criminal Court or other mechanisms." The UN Human Rights Office documented more than 6.000 killings in the first three days of the RSF offensive on (El Fasher) following 18 months of sustained siege of the city.
The report assessed that at least 4.400 people were killed within (El Fasher) in those few days and over 1.600 others along exit routes as they fled. The actual scale of the death toll during the week-long offensive is undoubtedly significantly higher.
The report found that the RSF and allied Arab militia carried out widespread attacks including mass killings and summary executions sexual violence abductions for ransom torture and ill-treatment detention disappearances pillage and the use of children in hostilities, use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare attacks directed against medical and humanitarian personnel.
These patterns of grave violations and abuses in (El Fasher) mirror those previously documented in RSF offensives on (Zamzam) camp in April 2025 and in (El Geneina) and (Ardamata) in 2023. The report noted that those acts taken together demonstrate an organized and sustained course of conduct suggesting a systematic attack against the civilian population in the Darfur region. Acts of violence knowingly committed as part of such an attack would amount to crimes against humanity.
The UN Human Rights Office documented multiple incidents of mass killing with the apparent aim of inflicting maximum harm. In one incident around 500 people were killed when RSF fighters opened fire using heavy weapons on a crowd of 1.000 sheltering at (Al-Rashid) dormitory in (El Fasher) University on 26 October.
The UN Human Rights Chief renewed his call on parties to the conflict to take effective steps to end the grave violations by forces under their command and to States with influence to act urgently to prevent the repetition of violations documented in (El Fasher).
"This includes respecting the arms embargo already in place and ending the supply sale or transfer of arms or military material to the parties," he stressed.
He also reiterated his call on States to do everything possible to support local regional and international mediation efforts, to achieve a cessation of hostilities and a pathway towards inclusive civilian governance. (end) imk.hm