Full story
El Fasher Under Siege
Amnesty International launched an international campaign calling for the urgent deployment of a protection force for Sudanese civilians as violence intensifies between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces.
Amnesty said the conflict, ongoing since April 2023, has left tens of thousands dead and produced more than 10.5 million people displaced inside Sudan and 4 million fled to neighboring countries, while more than 30 million people need humanitarian assistance.
The rights group warned that broad areas such as Darfur and Kordofan suffer from severe hunger, and it said the Rapid Support Forces besieged the city of El Fasher in North Darfur for 18 months between 2024 and 2025 using siege and starvation as a weapon of war.
Amnesty International argued that a strong and effective protection force is now necessary to deter attacks on civilians, to protect women and children and other groups at greatest risk, and to create safe conditions for the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Amnesty Details RSF Abuses
Amnesty International accused Sudan's paramilitary 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.
Amnesty Secretary General Agnès Callamard said, "The war in Sudan is a war on civilians," and she added that "Children were not collateral damage of this violence."
Amnesty said the RSF besieged El Fasher from May 2024 to October 2025, restricting food and humanitarian aid while shelling the city almost daily, and it said the siege contributed to famine forcing residents to eat ambaz.
Amnesty reported that on Oct. 26, 2025, the RSF launched its final offensive on El Fasher, and it said civilians attempting to flee encountered a 57-kilometer (35-mile) network of berms where hundreds were executed and many others were tortured or detained.
Pressure for Protection
Amnesty International urged the international community to act urgently to prevent what it warns could escalate into genocide, while calling for an immediate nationwide ceasefire and the deployment of an international protection force to safeguard civilians.
“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”
In its report, Amnesty said it wrote to RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo on 10 June detailing its findings but had received no response by the time the report was published.
The BBC reported that the RSF has not commented on the Amnesty report but has denied previous such accusations, and it said Amnesty's investigations released on Wednesday described crimes including murder, forcible transfer, imprisonment, torture, rape, sexual slavery, enslavement, extermination and persecution.
UNHCR said Sudan remained the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with 9.1 million people displaced inside the country, and it reported that 41.6 million people were refugees or in an international protection status worldwide at the end of 2025.
