UN Report Declares Sudan's Rapid Support Forces' Campaign in al‑Fashir a Genocide

A United Nations Fact‑Finding Mission on Sudan concluded that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out mass killings, abductions of women and girls, mass gang rapes and imposed deliberate starvation during the siege of al‑Fashir in north Darfur. Survivors said they were raped in rooms where bodies of recently killed civilians lay on the floor. The mission said the RSF’s systematic attacks on civilian infrastructure, restrictions on humanitarian aid and targeting of food production constitute a policy of genocide.

RSF officials have denied the allegations, claiming the accounts are fabricated by their enemies. The UN human‑rights chief warned that a similar catastrophe is unfolding in al‑Obeid, home to over half a million people, and called for an urgent inquiry.

Separate reports from the UN and NGOs describe the destruction of villages near the Chad border, where dozens of vehicles of the RSF burned homes and killed civilians, primarily targeting the Zaghawa community – actions described as bearing the “distinctive signs of genocide.” Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the mission, said, “The patterns we documented in al‑Fashir … serve as a stark warning,” and urged the international community to act to prevent further catastrophe.