Since the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seize control of the western Sudanese city of el-Fasher, the state capital, it is feared that thousands of people have been murdered.
El-Fasher fell on Sunday after an 18-month RSF siege that halted access to food and supplies for the tens of thousands of trapped insiders for hours.
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According to the UN, Sudan has been the site of an unrest for the past two and a half years, which has resulted in an estimated 40 000 deaths and the displacement of 12 million people.
What are our current knowledge’s regarding the alleged massacres in El-Fasher?
What transpired during El-Fasher?
El-Fasher was taken over by the RSF on Sunday, taking the SAF’s final remaining positions in the Darfur region. By Wednesday, reportedly, 2, 000 people had already been killed.
As a result of the RSF’s 56 kilometers (35 miles) of barriers, which blocked access to food and medicine and blocked escape routes, around 1.2 million people in the city had been under siege for 18 months and had been forced to eat animal feed.
RSF fighters were seen torturing and executing people in videos that were shared online and verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad Verification team. In the past, RSF members have frequently spoken about themselves abusing others.
Sudanese medical and human rights organizations claimed that the RSF was abusing hospitals, detaining people, and carrying out mass murders.
According to the UN Human Rights Office, the RSF’s actions included “indications of ethnic motivations for killings,” including summary executions of people fleeing.
Using satellite imagery and remote sensing data, a Yale Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) analysis appeared to confirm reports of widespread murders.
Human body clusters and bloody pools are signs of human existence, according to HRL. Before the RSF invaded, the report noted that the clusters and discoloration weren’t present in the images.
More than 26 000 people have fled El-Fasher in just two days, most of them on foot, heading toward Tawila, which is 43 kilometers west, according to the UN. The International Organization for Migration estimates that 177 000 civilians are still ensconced in El-Fasher.
Meanwhile, atrocities have been reported in Bara, in the RSF’s neighboring North Kordofan state, where it has reportedly attacked civilians and humanitarian workers since it announced it had taken control of the state on October 25.
Five Sudanese volunteers with the organization were killed in Bara, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and three more are still missing.
The RSF is moving quickly to take control of the strategic city of El-Obeid, which is located just outside Bara.
El-Fasher and El-Obeid are important, but where are they?
Both significant cities in western Sudan have turned into important battlegrounds.
The SAF is attempting to occupy RSF territory from its strongholds in the east, but the RSF is already deeply rooted in the west and wants to completely rule the area.
El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, was the last major city to remain unaffected by the RSF, up until Sunday. With its seizure this week, the nation is now effectively split between an RSF-controlled west and an east-dominated SAF.
The Sudanese army is stationed in eastern, central, and northern strongholds while the RSF has established a parallel government throughout Darfur.
El-Obeid, which borders Darfur and the Kordofan region and serves as a strategic link between Darfur and Khartoum, is the oil-rich capital of North Kordofan state.
According to analysts, SAF currently controls El-Obeid, but the RSF is attempting to close in, which would mean sacrificing SAF’s crucial buffer between its Khartoum base and RSF territory.
The RSF announced on October 25 that it had retaken Bara, which SAF had only recently taken from it in September, for 59 kilometers (37 miles).  ,
According to Mercy Corps, the RSF had launched attacks on El-Obeid from Bara in an effort to subdue it, and it is now moving closer to El-Obeid, where at least 137, 000 people were already sheltering.
What have the parties’ statements regarding the el-Fasher’s seizure been?
General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the SAF’s commander and de facto leader, announced on Monday that his troops had withdrawn from El-Fasher to spare the populace “the systemic destruction and the systematic killing of civilians” by the RSF.
However, he continued, “We are determined to avenge what occurred to our people in El-Fasher.”
Foreign Minister Hussein Al-Amin blasted the international community on Wednesday for failing to intervene against the RSF.
According to Mohammed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, the RSF’s leader, said on Wednesday that any individuals found guilty of crimes against civilians would be held accountable.
The RSF are who?
The paramilitary group’s original name was “Janjaweed,” nomadic tribal armed groups that had fought for Omar al-Bashir’s long-serving government during the 2003 Darfur war, and later gained acclaim for their impunity.
Some rights groups labeled the Janjaweed’s killings and displacement of 2.5 million people as genocide against the rebelling sedentary tribes.
Al-Bashir designated the Janjaweed as the RSF, which had roughly 100 000 members in 2013. Then, a law passed in 2017 strengthened its position as an independent security force.
During the 2019 popular uprising, the RSF helped to overthrow al-Bashir. Then, in order to end the civilian-military transition government, it joined forces with SAF in 2021 to overthrow civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok.
What caused the conflict in Sudan to begin?
However, Hemedti and al-Burhan became tense over when the SAF and the RSF would merge, and which organization would take the lead, leading to the outbreak of war on April 15, 2023.
The main issue is who will take the national leadership, with SAF requesting that the RSF fully enlist in its ranks and organizational structure.
Both sides have been accused of carrying out atrocities in the conflict by human rights groups.
The US Department of State announced in January that Darfur was the site of a genocide committed by the RSF and its allies.
What is in question?
Most importantly, there are thousands of lives.
Sudanese rights organizations have warned that civilians, particularly those from “non-Arab” tribes, would be seriously impacted if an RSF took control of El-Fasher.
According to Hiba Morgan of Al Jazeera, people who fled El-Fasher reported hearing about the RSF executing people based on ethnicity.
Nearly 500 people have reportedly died in the Saudi Hospital, where patients, health workers, and fugitives were sheltering.
There are numerous reports of sexual violence against women, and the RSF has reportedly detained hundreds of others.
Any location the RSF seizes is likely to experience more massacres, according to analysts.
El-Fasher’s seizure gives the RSF complete control over the entire Darfur region, which is strategically located along Sudan’s borders along with Libya and South Sudan.
The conflict was partially driven by fighting for Sudan’s gold, according to an Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) report from 2024.
What steps have been taken to put an end to the conflict?
There haven’t been significant positive outcomes from the various peace talks that Saudi Arabia, the United States, and the African Union have initiated.
More recently, the US charted a strategy that Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE called the “Quad” and called for the end of the fighting.
Their plan for a three-month humanitarian truce would allow aid to enter, which would eventually lead to a permanent ceasefire. Additionally, it demanded a nine-month transition to civilian rule.
Al-Burhan initially rebuffed this agreement, pleading for the RSF to disband. However, he showed an openness to it when he first met Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi on October 15.
Indirect negotiations between SAF and RSF were reported last week in Washington, DC, with the end of October meeting as a target for further discussions.
