200 mass graves in Bara hold 600 victims of el-Fasher's 72-hour slaughter

A year after the Rapid Support Forces seized el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, survivors returning to the city report that fear and hunger persist. Hala, a resident who uses a pseudonym for security, traveled from the Tawila refugee camp to the city three weeks ago to retrieve her birth certificate and identification card. Upon arrival, RSF fighters issued her a handwritten entry permit containing her name, a signature, and a date. The next day, soldiers accosted her in the street with abusive language, though she was not physically attacked because other civilians were present.

“There is no security in el-Fasher at all,” Hala said. She noted that women face sexual violence and that anyone refusing RSF demands risks beating or torture. She has since returned to Tawila and stated she will not go back. The RSF launched its final offensive on October 26, 2025, following a siege lasting more than 500 days. This assault resulted in the largest single massacre of the war between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces, a conflict that began in April 2023.

Researchers at Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab stated that the speed and scale of the killing compared only to the Rwandan genocide. The United Arab Emirates, which is accused of backing the RSF, continues to deny involvement. Survivors described rapes, executions, and the separation of men from women and children. Mohamed Hassan, a resident, said fighters shot men they judged to be army soldiers or members of allied Joint Forces. Close to 500 people were killed at the Saudi Maternity Hospital, where displaced families and medical staff had sheltered. UN investigators documented mass killings at el-Fasher University, on roads exiting the city, and at the berms the RSF constructed around the perimeter.

Monitoring groups using satellite imagery counted at least 6,000 dead in the first 72 hours of the assault. Approximately 260,000 people remained inside the city when the attack began. The RSF has maintained a communications blackout and barred human rights investigators from entering. This week, volunteers in the North Kordofan town of Bara recovered more than 600 bodies from 200 mass graves. Witnesses said most were civilians killed by the RSF during the same October offensive.

Yale researchers identified 150 clusters of objects consistent with human remains between October 26 and November 28, 2025. Twenty of these clusters showed signs of burning, and 57 disappeared entirely within four weeks. RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, announced an investigation into violations by his soldiers. When a UN team entered under close supervision in December, officials described the city as a crime scene. One in six people screened suffered from severe acute malnutrition.

The preceding siege devastated medical care. A doctor who worked inside an el-Fasher hospital for nearly two years said generators ran only two hours a night, forcing emergency surgeries to be performed by phone flashlight. Antibiotics and surgical gauze ran out, and the World Food Programme reported that residents survived on animal fodder and food waste. In February, a UN fact-finding mission concluded that the RSF committed acts of genocide in el-Fasher. The United States, Amnesty International, and other rights groups have reached similar findings regarding Darfur.

Displacement continues to expand. Tawila now hosts around 800,000 people, most of them from el-Fasher. Survivors say the RSF still detains fleeing men and demands ransoms of up to $3,000. Khadijah, an elderly woman from el-Geneina, said she lives under a tree on a farm with little food and no shelter. Mudathir Mohammed Diqourni, a member of an el-Fasher resistance committee, said RSF militias are destroying farms and killing farmers in South and Central Darfur.

The UN mission found reasonable grounds to believe private companies and recruiters based in the UAE routed weapons through Chad, southeastern Libya, and Bosaso in Somalia. Mona Rishmawi, a member of the mission, said the supplies included weapons, drone-related equipment, logistical help, and personnel. The United States remains the UAE's top weapons supplier, and British weaponry has been found on Sudanese battlefields.