Amnesty Accuses Sudan’s RSF of Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing in El Fasher

Amnesty International accused Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of committing crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during their campaign to seize El Fasher in North Darfur, urging an immediate ceasefire and deployment of an international force to protect civilians.

In its report, Amnesty said it documented killings, torture, rape, sexual slavery, forced displacement, imprisonment, enslavement, extermination and persecution committed against civilians in and around El Fasher between early 2024 and October 2025.

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Amnesty Secretary General Agnès Callamard said, “The war in Sudan is a war on civilians,” linking the siege to restrictions on food and humanitarian aid while shelling the city almost daily.

The BBC reported Amnesty’s finding that “The RSF's crimes included murder, forcible transfer, imprisonment, torture, rape, sexual slavery,” describing the siege and takeover of el-Fasher as one of the bloodiest episodes in Sudan’s civil war.

Amnesty said it interviewed 70 survivors of the assault and that civilians attempting to flee encountered a 57-kilometer (35-mile) network of berms where hundreds were executed and many others were tortured or detained.

Amnesty’s report, released as the RSF has not commented and has denied previous such accusations, framed the violence in el-Fasher as deliberate targeting of civilians during an 18-month siege.

Agnès Callamard told the BBC, “Children were not collateral damage of this violence – often, they were deliberately targeted and have suffered immensely,” and Amnesty said it gathered dozens of accounts from more than 200 survivors.

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The BBC also quoted a 17-year-old attacked in Abu Zerega, saying, “They tied me up and beat me with sticks and the back of an AK-47,” before describing how he was shot in the leg.

Amnesty told Anadolu Ajansı that it sent a letter to RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo on June 10 detailing its findings but had received no response by the time the report was published.

Amnesty said it identified RSF commanders responsible for violations of international law and stressed the need for accountability, while the RSF leadership acknowledged some violations occurred and said it was investigating them.

Amnesty urged a nationwide ceasefire and the deployment of an independent and adequately resourced international protection force, saying the siege contributed to famine and forced residents to eat ambaz, a peanut oil byproduct normally used as animal feed.

“Amnesty International has called for the urgent deployment of an international force to protect civilians in Sudan, as violence intensifies between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, and the conflict has produced an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”

Al-Jazeera Net

The BBC said Sudan remains locked in a three-year power struggle between the regular army and the RSF paramilitaries, with the ongoing civil war having killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced more than 14 million people from their homes.

Amnesty’s report also argued that evidence gathered “may be relevant to the crime of genocide,” while the BBC noted that both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have been accused of war crimes, which they deny.

In a separate Amnesty campaign described by Al-Jazeera Net, the organization called for an international force to deter attacks on civilians, protect women and children and other groups at greatest risk, and create safe conditions for humanitarian aid delivery.

Al-Jazeera Net said the conflict has left more than 10.5 million people displaced inside Sudan and 4 million fled to neighboring countries, and it urged signatures to be delivered to the United Nations Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council.