A genocidal massacre in the city of El Fasher in western Sudan was carried out between 26 October and 4 November 2025. Tens of thousands of civilians were executed or murdered, spawning a prolonged refugee crisis. The massacre was carried out by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group after they captured the city, which was the last Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) stronghold in Darfur—marking the end of official state presence in the city and perhaps the region. Humanitarian experts consider it the worst war crime committed during the Sudanese civil war, characterized by mass atrocities and ethnic cleansing.
The Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) estimated that following the initial 26 October massacre, the "250,000 remaining civilians [had] been killed by RSF, died, been displaced, or persist[ed] in hiding". In November 2025, a communications blackout in the city was still limiting information. The Yale HRL estimated that the figures of those killed are "undercounted" and Sky News claimed that analysts estimate "tens of thousands" of individuals killed. El Fasher's Resistance Committee stated that many of those living in El Fasher's core were killed.
The speed and intensity of the killings in the immediate aftermath of the fall of El Fasher has been compared to the first 24 hours of the Rwandan genocide. According to Sudanese journalist and author Nesrine Malik, "the RSF of today is the Janjaweed of yesteryear, except this time armed to the teeth, supported by powerful external allies, and with a renewed appetite to purge once more non-Arab populations it has been hostile to for decades." On 16 November 2025, Sudan researcher Eric Reeves described the RSF as a "genocidal militia force" and the massacre as a "genocidal slaughter". A United Nations fact-finding mission also reported in 2026 that the massacre showed "the hallmarks of genocide".
Background
El Fasher is the capital of the North Darfur state of Sudan. Due to refugees from various conflicts, notably the War in Darfur, the population of the city has varied. In 2001 the city had a population of approximately 178,500 people. By 2009 it was estimated at 500,000.
Since 2023, a civil war has been raging across Sudan. It began as a result of a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Muhammad Dagalo, better known by the mononym Hemedti. The RSF was created by Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir in 2013, formed from existing Janjaweed militias in Darfur, a region of western Sudan. The Janjaweed were a major perpetrator of the Darfur genocide against the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa ethnic groups.
Siege of El Fasher
El Fasher came under siege, and the first major battle there took place in April 2023. Over the next two years, there were several clashes between armed forces. In May 2024 it was estimated the city had a population of 1.5 million, of whom at least 800,000 were internally displaced people sheltering there. Throughout the siege a large number of people fled to various refugee camps, such as the Tawila refugee camp and the Zamzam Refugee Camp, the latter of which was destroyed by the RSF, killing up to 2,000 people and forcing an exodus of 400,000 refugees to Tawila. In October 2025, El Fasher remained the last stronghold of the Sudanese Armed Forces in Darfur. According to estimates, during September and October 2025 more than 260,000 civilians were trapped in the city because of the siege. During this period, reports documented a deteriorating humanitarian crisis, with UN convoys even being struck by drone attacks.
Following intensified RSF attacks on the city, the SAF retreated late on 27 October 2025, resulting in the fall of the city. On 28 October, al-Burhan confirmed that the SAF had withdrawn from the city. In the ensuing raid on the city, which the RSF described as "combing operation on a large-scale," the group claimed that it has an "utmost commitment" to protect civilians, of whom approximately 260,000 remained in the city at the time its capture.
Motives
Allegations of collaboration and spying
RSF fighters are suspected to have justified the massacre by branding those who remained in the city after the SAF left as collaborators or spies. According to testimony provided to Amnesty International, despite being asked if they were soldiers or civilians, residents of the city were told:
In El Fasher, there are no civilians, everybody is a soldier.
— Alleged statement from RSF Soldier before executing four civilians, per victim testimony
Ethnic
Further reports by Médecins Sans Frontières (lit. transl. Doctors Without Borders) and others stated that the killings have been reported as indiscriminate but ethnically targeted. Eyewitnesses recounted RSF soldiers asking civilians what "tribe" they were from and would execute them on the spot depending on the answer. Some testimonies were provided by survivors being treated in nearby Tawila. Sources within the RSF, some of which perpetrated killings, confirmed that the massacre was systematically executed on ethnic bases. They added that the RSF made arrangements allowing those "not on the list of targeted ethnicities to flee the city." The Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) observed numerous uses of ethnic slurs, including derogatory language, including referring to civilians as "slaves," "falangay," and "donkeys." Based on evidence, experts corroborate the opinion that the killings are undoubtedly ethnically targeted, which was also recognized in the genocide against non-Arab Darfuri communities between 2003 and 2005.
Survivors, advocacy group representatives from NGO Protection Approaches and the IDP Humanitarian Network, and the United Nations (UN) said the attacks in El Fasher were done with the clear aim of ethnic cleansing and were part of a wider pattern of RSF violence across Darfur. Raymond compared the massacre to the first 24 hours of the Rwandan genocide.
Financial
Financial motives for the violence have also been repeatedly alleged–several thousand people were reportedly detained by the RSF to be held for ransom, with those not able to source payment being executed.
Funding and military support
According to Sudan researcher Eric Reeves, United Arab Emirates (UAE) funds are used to "pay RSF officers' salaries, to bribe those who might interdict weapons shipments, even to provide an extremely elaborate social media and public relations campaign out of Dubai". Reeves also sees the UAE as a major supplier of weapons to the RSF. He stated that UAE cargo planes are used to provide weapons to the RSF via intermediary countries, citing advanced, long-range Chinese howitzers as a key weapon in the siege of El Fasher supplied to the RSF by the UAE.
Massacre
Following an SAF order for troops to retreat from El Fasher on 26 October, the RSF entered the city in the night between 26 and 27 October. RSF troops first took over the 6th Infantry Division base between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. local time. Between then and 6:00 p.m., they secured other key locations around the city. In videos released during this time, Hemedti's brother and RSF Deputy Commander, Abdul Rahim Dagalo, was seen in footage from the 6th Division base. After taking hold of the city, multiple sources—including local organizations, international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the United Nations, and independent monitoring groups—reported a wave of executions targeting unarmed civilians. This included house-to-house raids during which civilians were killed by RSF fighters traveling on foot, by camel and in vehicles. Confusion ensued as the fall of defenses was followed by a communications blackout. On 27 October, gunfire between the RSF and other forces were still being exchanged, particularly at the city's perimeter berm, dug by the RSF. The RSF captured El Fasher Airport that day. In the following days, the RSF had captured the entirety of El Fasher.
Civilians were killed in and around shelters for displaced families, hospitals, and homes. Witnesses and medical staff reported that drones, artillery, guns and whips were used in attacks that deliberately targeted civilians, in addition to firing indiscriminately. In the chaos, some were gathered together before being executed. Drones were seen chasing and targeting civilians. Videos show militants shooting civilians at point-blank range and mutilating them, including shattering their skulls. They have also reportedly engaged in sexual violence against women and girls. Other sources reported people being burned alive, extrajudicial executions, and planned attacks on certain ethnic groups. Witnesses recounted RSF fighters in trucks driving over and crushing civilians, sometimes after noticing they were still alive. Some said they saw 40 to 60 or more civilians killed in a singular location at a time. Eyewitnesses recounted the largest site of killing being the Daraja Oula neighborhood where most civilians were sheltering days before the massacre. The RSF "fired on everybody." RSF fighters were also seen looting buildings.
Witnesses and aid workers said men were separated from women, tortured, and executed on the grounds that they declined forced conscription into the RSF. They have additionally been reported of executing POWs and people with disabilities. Separated women and children were forced to walk on thorns for upwards of ten hours. Images and videos posted to social media by RSF soldiers shows them posing with the dead bodies of civilians, often doing "V signs". Testimony from civilians who had managed to escape the city recounted RSF soldiers threatening those captured for hours on end, keeping them awake by whipping them, often laughing as they committed atrocities. One witness recounted being rounded up by camel-mounted RSF militants with around 200 other men, being taken to a nearby reservoir and subjected to racial slurs before the soldiers began shooting.
On 26 October, it was estimated that many of the 260,000 people were still captured within the city. By 5 December, however, it was believed that few individuals remained detained in centers within the city. In the outbreak of killings, residents attempted to escape, with some following SAF soldiers in the process of fleeing or deserting the conflict. Refugees who managed to escape reported being ambushed by RSF soldiers, particularly near the berm. The berm's trench itself stopped or slowed many from escaping—with some being executed by RSF militants inside of it—forcing some families to split as younger individuals were able to scale the berm. RSF militants perpetrated violent searches, disappearances of civilians (particularly men), and kidnappings, typically for ransom. Many of those who managed to escape, as well as family of those captured in the city, described receiving phone calls from RSF soldiers demanding ransom in exchange for the safe release of hostages, with sums ranging from $20 to $20,000 USD being reported. It is believed that many have already "desperately" wired money to the RSF. Others unable to pay the sum promised payments, waiting for family from outside the country to provide it. While holding people for ransom between hours and weeks at a time, RSF militants reportedly filmed executions before showing surviving hostages, telling those being extorted that they would save their relatives if they paid.
On 14 November, Mona Rishmawi, a member of the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan, reported that the RSF had turned the University of El Fasher into "a killing ground" where thousands of civilians had been sheltering and then killed, so much so that there were "bodies piling in the streets and trenches dug in and around the city".
Saudi maternity hospital massacre
Within the first day of the massacre, the Saudi maternity hospital, the last functioning hospital in the city, saw a sharp influx of wounded individuals. Resources ran so low that, according to doctor testimony, mosquito nets were used in place of gauze. Some of those injured were pregnant women whose stomachs were torn open by projectiles and shrapnel.
Fearing execution, doctors began to escape the hospital, being forced to leave severely injured patients. On 29 October, at least 460–500 doctors, patients and companions of patients were reportedly killed at the Saudi Maternity Hospital. The World Health Organization later confirmed the killings, accusing the RSF of taking four doctors, a pharmacist and a nurse hostage, and demanding ransoms of more than $150,000 USD for their release. Verified videos from inside the hospital showed soldiers killing any civilians still alive. The Sudan Doctors Union said that approximately 1,200 other civilians were killed in other medical facilities.
Following the hospital's looting and destruction, women from El Fasher reported that "pregnant women [gave] birth in the streets."