Recent satellite imagery indicates that mass killings are continuing in and around the Sudanese city of El-Fasher, according to Yale researchers. This comes days after the city fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (rsf).
Since April 2023, the RSF has been at war with the regular army and captured El-Fasher on Sunday, pushing the army out of its last stronghold in the western Darfur region after an 18-month siege.
Since its fall, reports have surfaced of summary executions, sexual violence, attacks on aid workers, looting, and abductions, while communication remains largely cut off.
A report from Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab on Friday revealed that new images suggest much of the population may be “dead, captured, or in hiding. ”
The lab identified at least 31 clusters of objects resembling human bodies from Monday to Friday across neighbourhoods, university grounds, and military sites.
“Indicators that mass killing is continuing are clearly visible,” the lab stated.
Survivors from El-Fasher who reached Tawila report mass killings, children shot before their parents, and civilians beaten and robbed while fleeing.
Hayat, a mother of five who escaped El-Fasher, said that “young men travelling with us were stopped” along the way by paramilitaries, and “we don’t know what happened to them. ”
The UN estimates over 65,000 people have fled El-Fasher, but tens of thousands remain trapped.
Before the RSF’s final assault, about 260,000 people lived in the city.
The RSF claimed to have arrested several fighters accused of abuses on Thursday, though UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher questioned the RSF’s commitment to investigating violations.
Both the RSF and the army face war crimes accusations during the conflict.
With el-Fasher’s capture, the RSF now controls all five state capitals in Darfur, effectively dividing Sudan along an east-west axis, with the army controlling the north, east, and centre.
