RSF digging mass graves in Sudan’s el-Fasher to ‘clean up massacre’: Expert

According to a researcher at Yale University in the United States, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are digging mass graves in El-Fasher, a city in western Sudan where there have been numerous massacres and displacements since the RSF took control of the area last month.

The RSF “have begun to dig mass graves and gather bodies throughout the city,” according to Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale’s School of Public Health, on Tuesday.

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According to Raymond, “They are doing the massacre clean up.”

After the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) retreated, which has been fighting the paramilitary group for control of Sudan since April 2023, the RSF seized control of El-Fasher, the state capital, on October 26.

Since the RSF’s takeover, more than 70, 000 people have fled the city and surrounding areas, according to the UN, and there have also been reports of “summary executions,” sexual abuse, and civilian massacres, according to witnesses and human rights organizations.

Additionally, a report from Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab on October 28 revealed “mass killings” since the RSF’s control of El-Fasher, including apparent pools of blood that were visible in satellite imagery.

Additionally, UN officials issued a warning this week that el-Fasher is believed to have trapped thousands of people.

According to Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet, a senior UN refugee agency (UNHCR) official in Sudan, “the current insecurity continues to impede the delivery of life-saving assistance to those trapped in the city without food, water, and medical care.”

Before the RSF’s full takeover, el-Fasher was already suffering from an 18-month siege imposed by the paramilitary group, according to Sudanese journalist Abdallah Hussain.

Hussain told Al Jazeera from Khartoum, the city’s capital, on Tuesday, that “no medical facilities]were] operating and that no aid was allowed access to the city.” The situation is getting worse for the citizens who are still trapped right now.

The RSF and its supporters have attempted to minimize the atrocities committed in El-Fasher by blaming allied armed groups for their actions as a result of widespread condemnation.

Hemedti, the RSF’s leader, has also promised an investigation.

However, Raymond from the Humanitarian Research Lab stated that “they must leave the city [and] allow UN personnel, the Red Cross, and humanitarians to go house-to-house to see who is still alive.

We can’t let the RSF do their own investigation at this point, he said.

According to Raymond, “more people could have died [in 10 days] than have died in the past two years of the war in Gaza,” according to UN figures and what can be seen on the ground in el-Fasher.

“That’s what we’re talking about,” the statement read. He emphasized that thousands of people require emergency assistance, and he told Al Jazeera, “That’s not hyperbole.”