UN Report: RSF Actions In Sudan’s al-Fashir Bear ‘Hallmarks Of Genocide’

A United Nations fact-finding mission has concluded that the campaign of violence carried out by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in and around the western city of al-Fashir shows hallmarks of genocide, marking one of the strongest international condemnations of atrocities in the ongoing Sudanese conflict.

The report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan, mandated by the UN Human Rights Council, found that the RSF’s siege and capture of al-Fashir in October 2025 were not random acts of war, but planned and systematic operations targeting non-Arab communities, notably the Zaghawa and Fur ethnic groups.

Mass Killings and Coordinated Abuses

According to the mission’s findings, RSF fighters:

• executed thousands of civilians in the first three days after the city fell, with documented killings of at least 6,000 people and indications this number is significantly higher.
• carried out widespread sexual violence, including rape and gang rape targeting women and girls from non-Arab communities.
• used extermination-style rhetoric, with survivors quoting RSF members making explicit ethnic threats.
• imposed conditions such as starvation, torture and denial of humanitarian aid, acts the report says were calculated to bring about the physical destruction of specific groups.

UN investigators noted the violence extended beyond the city, with displacement camps, hospitals and communal facilities attacked during the offensive. Survivors described scenes of horror, with bodies lining roads, mass disappearances, and deliberate efforts to erase evidence of killings.

What ‘Hallmarks of Genocide’ Means

Under international law, specifically the Genocide Convention, genocide is defined by acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. The UN report found that at least three criteria of the convention were met:

• killing members of a protected group,
• causing serious bodily or mental harm, and
• inflicting conditions of life meant to bring about physical destruction.

Report chair Mohamed Chande Othman stated that the scale, coordination and leadership support for the RSF’s actions made it impossible to classify the violence as mere wartime excesses. Instead, he said, the crimes “bear the defining characteristics of genocide.”

Context: War and Humanitarian Crisis

Sudan’s civil war, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF, has devastated the country. Millions have been displaced and tens of thousands have been killed, according to UN agencies and humanitarian groups.

Al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur, historically a culturally diverse region — had been under an 18-month RSF siege before its fall. The siege cut off essential food, medical supplies and aid access, leaving civilians malnourished and defenseless.

International Responses and Accountability Calls

The UN report has intensified global calls for accountability. The United States has sanctioned three RSF commanders for their roles in atrocities in al-Fashir, labeling the siege and subsequent violence as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and elements indicating genocide.

The British Foreign Secretary also condemned the report’s findings, urging urgent international action to protect civilians and push for a ceasefire.

Despite the gravity of the accusations, the RSF and Sudanese government have not cooperated with the investigation, and top RSF leadership has rejected earlier accusations of wrongdoing.

Humanitarian Toll and Future Risks

Beyond the immediate atrocities, the conflict has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Aid organizations warn that conditions in other parts of Sudan, particularly in Kordofan, may be deteriorating similarly, with ongoing violence, displacement and attacks on aid workers complicating relief efforts.

The UN’s classification of these events as bearing the “hallmarks of genocide” does not automatically amount to a legal determination of genocide, that decision is reserved for competent international tribunals, but it sharply raises the urgency for legal and humanitarian intervention.