A United Nations-backed human rights mission has issued a damning report concluding that Sudanese paramilitary forces executed a systematic “campaign of destruction” against non-Arab communities in Darfur, exhibiting clear indicators of genocide. The investigation focused on the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) takeover of el-Fasher in late October, following an 18-month siege that crippled the city.
According to the independent fact-finding mission, the RSF and allied Arab militias, historically known as Janjaweed, perpetrated mass killings, summary executions, widespread sexual violence, torture, and abductions. UN officials estimate several thousand civilians were killed during the city’s fall, with only 40% of its 260,000 residents managing to escape alive. The report documents a deliberate pattern of ethnically targeted violence, particularly against the Zaghawa and Fur communities.
The expert team applied the legal framework of the 1948 Genocide Convention, finding the RSF’s actions met at least three of the five criteria for genocide. These included killing members of a protected group, causing serious bodily and mental harm, and deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction. The report cited public statements by fighters explicitly calling for the elimination of non-Arab communities as evidence of genocidal intent.
Team chair Mohamed Chande Othman, former Chief Justice of Tanzania, emphasized these were not “random excesses of war” but a planned, organized operation. The conflict, which erupted in April 2023 between military and paramilitary forces, has killed over 40,000 people according to UN figures, though aid groups believe the actual toll is significantly higher. The mission called for urgent accountability measures and warned of expanding violence across Sudan.