How a UN expert proved the RSF committed genocide in Sudan's el-Fasher
Atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan's el-Fasher bear the hallmarks of the crime of genocide, a UN investigator told Middle East Eye following the publication of a report into the takeover of the North Darfur capital in October.
Mona Rishmawi, a member of the UN Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan (FFMS) and an expert on the Darfur conflict, said the mission's conclusion represents a “serious and urgent” finding that should compel governments to take immediate steps to halt weapons flows to the RSF.
“This report, and the conclusion that the threshold of genocide has been reached, has to be taken extremely seriously,” she told MEE in an interview on Sunday. “If the same modus operandi continues, we will see more situations like el-Fasher. Stopping the flow of weapons is essential.”
Though it denies the charges, there is widespread evidence, as reported by MEE, linking the United Arab Emirates with the supply of arms and other goods to the RSF.
The FFMS is an independent investigative mechanism established by the UN Human Rights Council to document violations of international human rights and humanitarian law committed during Sudan's war, which broke out between the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in April 2023.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
The mission's report, due to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council later this week, found that the RSF carried out a myriad of international crimes in the lead up to, during and after the capture of el-Fasher from the SAF, which came after more than 500 days of siege.
'In el-Fasher, the non-Arab groups were encircled and killed'
- Mona Rishmawi, UN expert
Survivors of the city's capture told MEE they had witnessed civilians being raped, executed and held to ransom by members of the paramilitary force. They also said the RSF had taken blood from victims in makeshift detention centres.
In previous reports, the UN Sudan mission found evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both the RSF and SAF.
This is the first time, however, that it has reached a conclusion on genocide, the most serious crime under international law.
Rishmawi says el-Fasher has witnessed a more severe form of criminality than earlier RSF campaigns in Darfur, which had also prompted determinations of genocide from human rights groups and the US government.
“In places like Nyala and el-Geneina, there was widespread killing. But in our assessment, there seemed to be an intention to push the Massalit out,” she explained, referring to the non-Arab communities previously targeted by the RSF, whose fighters mostly come from the Arab tribes of western Sudan and Chad. “There was a lot of rape and killings on the way, but not at this level.
“In el-Fasher, the non-Arab groups were encircled and killed on a massive scale."
Under the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), three elements must be established to prove genocide: the targeting of a protected group; at least one prohibited genocidal act committed against the group; and the intent to destroy - in whole or in part - that group.
All the elements have been found in the RSF's conduct, explained the UN expert.
“Here we found three of the acts,” Rishmawi said, referring to mass killings, serious bodily and mental harm, including rape and torture, and conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction.
Most victims belonged to the Zaghawa and Fur communities, which the ICC has previously recognised as protected ethnic groups in Darfur.
The mission documented mass killings in at least six locations, including el-Fasher University, the Saudi Hospital, major exit routes, and at the earthen berms built by the RSF to trap fleeing civilians.
These findings corroborate previous reporting by MEE and documentation by Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL).
One survivor told Rishmawi that from a group of hundreds attempting to flee through RSF exit points, only five people survived.
“He told me only five people survived from a group of hundreds: himself, his aunt, his neighbour, his son, and one person he didn’t know. Everyone else was killed,” she said.
The mission also cited gruesome examples of rape and sexual violence targeting girls and women from the non-Arab communities, in addition to torture and imposing deliberate starvation conditions.
Genocidal intent
In order to prove genocide, the intent to destroy a group in whole or in part must be established. According to Rishmawi, this element could be inferred from the totality of conduct by the RSF, including their use of dehumanising language and the pattern of their crimes.
"They wanted to eliminate the group as such. If you look at the pattern of conduct, the language of the perpetrators, and the acts committed against this particular group - or two particular groups - the only reasonable inference you can draw is that intent," she said.
'When you look at the pattern, the language, the acts, and who they targeted, the only reasonable inference you can draw is genocidal intent'
- Mona Rishmawi
The 18-month siege, imposed by the RSF before their October 2025takeover, left more than a quarter of a million civilians trapped without food, medicine, water or humanitarian access.
“You are preventing a population from receiving the basic elements of survival,” Rishmawi said. “Food, medicine, clean water: all denied. Water sources were bombed. People were drinking contaminated water and getting sick, and there was no medication. This was deliberate, systematic, and prolonged.”
The mission also found direct evidence of genocidal intent through the RSF’s own utterances.
“The perpetrators used derogatory language, saying: ‘We will purify your race.’ They said they would kill Zaghawa or Fur civilians if they found them, and they did,” she said.
She added that RSF conduct was not chaotic but coordinated.
“When you look at the pattern, the language, the acts, and who they targeted, the only reasonable inference you can draw is genocidal intent.”
The "only reasonable inference" is the same standard used by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to prove genocidal intent when assessing state responsibility.
Last month, the ICC’s deputy prosecutor said her office is currently investigating the el-Fasher atrocities as well as the massacres committed by the RSF in el-Geneina. The court has jurisdiction over Darfur under a 2005 Security Council referral.
Rishmawi said the UN mission has shared confidential evidence files with the ICC identifying suspects and crimes.
She stressed that the mission cooperates closely with prosecutors and that the ICC values the quality of evidence provided, but added that the court’s weakened position as a result of US sanctions makes swift action more difficult.
“When you ask people in the camps what they want, accountability and justice are always at the top of the list.
“We need to support the ICC and strengthen its work, but we also need a separate judicial mechanism that looks at Sudan impartially.”
‘Ghost town’
Accounts from residents who returned to el-Fasher after the RSF takeover further reinforced investigators’ conclusions.
“They all described a ghost town,” Rishmawi told MEE. “Very few people in the streets. Entire neighbourhoods destroyed. The number of displaced does not explain the number of people who disappeared. You have to conclude there were mass killings.”
The report identifies several RSF commanders known to have been present during the killings. But Rishmawi said accountability cannot stop at field level.
“They have a command structure and operate according to a strategy,” she said. “People must be held responsible for what they did, or for what they failed to prevent.”
The mission’s report said that the RSF's leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, praised the “liberation” of el-Fasher and hailed fighters as “lions and heroes”.
His brother and right-hand man, Abdul Rahim Dagalo, and spokesperson Al-Fatih al-Qurashi, also described the city’s capture as a “major and historic military victory”.
Rishmawi said both the RSF and the SAF refused to cooperate with the UN investigation, despite repeated written requests for meetings and information.
She explained that while the RSF publicly claimed to be engaging with the mission, they never answered questions or facilitated access. 
The Sudanese government also denied investigators entry to areas under its control, including el-Fasher, and ignored multiple attempts to arrange discussions. She described their approach as “cynical,” saying neither side showed willingness to assist efforts to document violations or protect civilians.
The only access the investigators had was in neighbouring Chad and South Sudan, where they met with survivors displaced from el-Fasher.
The difficulty in access has been exacerbated by the severe financial and staffing constraints facing the FFMS, reflecting the wider budget crisis across the UN.
“We are operating with less than half the staff we need. With more stability and more resources, we could do a lot more, especially in the more complex areas of investigation.”
Despite this, she said the mission’s three members have taken on an unusually heavy workload themselves, allowing the report to move forward but leaving critical areas under-explored due to a lack of specialised investigators.
‘The world is largely absent’
Rishmawi said the UN report is a warning to states providing political or material support to armed actors.
The report noted that the RSF "appear to have benefited from logistical military support", in breach of the arms embargo that has been in place in Darfur since 2005.
The report did not name any specific foreign backers of the RSF, but said that the mission is engaging with different states regarding their involvement in the conflict and that it would report on third-state responsibility in the future.
“All member states, whichever side they support, have to be extremely careful not to be implicated in these acts, which in our assessment have reached the threshold of genocide,” she said.
Preventing further atrocities will require more than diplomacy and ceasefire talks, she added.
“The question is: what do we do to protect civilians? Do we leave them at the mercy of fighting, when we know what happens when the RSF moves into a place?”
Rishmawi said discussions on an international protection force should now be taken seriously, arguing that many Darfur residents felt safer under the former African Union-UN hybrid peacekeeping mission (Unamid) tasked with stabilising Darfur, protecting civilians, and supporting humanitarian aid from 2007 to 2020.
“Today there is very little international presence and very little media inside the country,” she said. “People are being killed and displaced, and the world is largely absent.”
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
