UN mission finds RSF destruction in el-Fasher bears ‘hallmarks of genocide’ 

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group carried out “a coordinated campaign of destruction” against non-Arab communities in and around the Sudanese city of el-Fasher, the hallmarks of which point to genocide, United Nations-backed experts have said.

El-Fasher was the last stronghold of the Sudanese army in the sprawling region of Darfur in the west of the country, until it fell to the RSF in late October last year. The two sides have been fighting a vicious civil war since April 2023.

In a new report on Thursday, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Sudan said RSF fighters were responsible for atrocities after an 18-month siege on el-Fasher, during which they imposed conditions “calculated to bring about the physical destruction” of non-Arab communities, in particular the Zaghawa and the Fur communities.

“The scale, coordination, and public endorsement of the operation by senior RSF leadership demonstrate that the crimes committed in and around el-Fasher were not random excesses of war,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, the chair of the mission.

“They formed part of a planned and organised operation that bears the defining characteristics of genocide.”

Under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide refers to any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy – in whole or in part – a national, ethnical, racial or religious group: Killing members of the group; causing its members serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to bring about its physical destruction; imposing measures intended to prevent births in the group; and forcibly transferring its children to another group.

Under the 1948 convention, a genocide assessment could be made even if only one of the five criteria were met.

The fact-finding mission, which was mandated by members of the Human Rights Council, said it found at least three of those five were met in the alleged actions of the RSF.

According to the report, they included killing members of a protected ethnic group; causing serious bodily and mental harm; and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction in whole or in part.

The independent UN probe cited a systematic pattern of ethnically targeted killings, sexual violence, destruction, and public statements explicitly calling for the elimination of non-Arab communities.

The team’s report documented acts directed specifically against protected ethnic groups, accompanied by “exterminatory rhetoric”, accusing the RSF of targeting individuals based on their ethnicity, gender and perceived political affiliation.

“RSF fighters openly stated their intention to target and eliminate non-Arab communities,” the report stated, citing accounts of “explicit threats to ‘clean’ the city”.

“Survivors cited them as saying: ‘Is there anyone Zaghawa among you? If we find Zaghawa, we will kill them all … We want to eliminate anything Black from Darfur.'”

It said the alleged violations indicated the RSF intent to destroy the Zaghawa and Fur communities in whole or in part.

The report also stated that girls and women between the ages of seven and 70, including pregnant women, were raped and subjected to other forms of sexual violence, including whipping, beatings and forced nudity.

It quoted survivors reporting that “numerous” women were raped and recounting point-blank killings of civilians in homes, streets, open areas or while attempting to flee el-Fasher.

“They described individuals being gunned down in the streets, trenches and public buildings where they were hiding, while bodies of men, women and children filled the roads,” it stated.

There was no immediate comment by the RSF, which has previously denied such accusations.

Sudan descended into conflict nearly three years ago when a rivalry between its army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the commander of the RSF, Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, exploded into an all-out war.

Since then, tens of thousands of people have been killed while millions have been forced from their homes, with both sides accused of war crimes.

The RSF was formed out of tribal “Janjaweed” militias, which became a notorious state-backed group that was used as a counterrebel force during the Darfur war that began in 2003. About 300,000 people died in combat as well as from famine and disease brought on by the conflict.