UN Probe Finds ‘Hallmarks of Genocide’ in RSF Takeover of Sudan’s El-Fasher

A UN fact-finding mission found that atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during the capture of El-Fasher city in Sudan’s Darfur show “hallmarks of genocide” against non-Arab communities.

After an 18-month siege, the RSF captured El-Fasher in late October 2025, unleashing a wave of atrocities, including summary executions, sexual violence and mass detention, which the UN said they amounted to “war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.”

Acts of Genocide in El-Fasher

On Thursday, February 19, 2026, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan released a report showing that it found at least three of five acts of genocide committed by the RSF in El-Fasher.

These include 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. They formed part of a planned and organized operation that bears the defining characteristics of genocide,” Chair of the mission, Mohamed Chande Othman, said.

Targeting Non-Arab Communities

The report noted that the RSF carried out a “coordinated campaign of destruction against non-Arab communities in and around El-Fasher,” specifically the Zaghawa and Fur.

This campaign started with the 18-month siege that “systematically weakened the targeted population through starvation, deprivation, trauma and confinement,” leaving many unable to flee when the assault came.

The Zaghawa and Fur, among Darfur‘s most prominent non-Arab communities, have been repeatedly targeted by ethnic violence and discrimination since the early 2000s, according to the UN. Many families currently in El-Fasher had already survived several waves of displacement before the onset of the present crisis.

Genocidal Intent

The report said that the RSF’s systematic pattern of ethnically targeted killings, sexual violence, destruction, and public statements explicitly calling for the elimination of non-Arab communities confirms their genocidal intent.

“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,” Fact-Finding Mission expert Mona Rishmawi said.

“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 noted.

Lack of Accountability

The fact-finding mission warned that the lack of accountability risks more genocidal acts in other Sudanese regions, including Kordofan, which has become a battleground for the warring parties.

“As the conflict has expanded to the Kordofan region, urgent protection of civilians is needed – now more than ever,” Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, an expert member of the Fact-Finding Mission, warned.

“The conduct in El-Fasher represents not merely an intensification of prior violations and related crimes, but an acute manifestation of patterns consistent with genocidal violence,” she said.

Furthermore, the mission voiced concern over the absence of effective prevention and accountability. “Perpetrators at all levels of authority must be held accountable. Where evidence indicates genocide, the international community has a heightened obligation to prevent, protect and ensure justice is done,” Othman noted.

Sudan Crisis

The war in Sudan broke out in April 2023 between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), triggering the world’s largest humanitarian and displacement crisis.

So far, the conflict has killed thousands and displaced over 15 million people within Sudan and across neighboring countries. It has also pushed parts of the country into famine amid cholera outbreaks.

Most recently, a report published by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) concluded that the RSF committed “widespread atrocities that amount to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity” during its takeover of El-Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur state.

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that the RSF and affiliated Arab militia committed acts amounting to the war crimes of murder,” the report said, adding that “acts of violence knowingly committed as part of such an attack would amount to crimes against humanity.”