Since the fall of Sudan’s El-Fasher, reports have emerged of summary executions, sexual violence and abductions.
Satellite imagery suggests mass killings are likely continuing in and around Sudan’s El-Fasher, Yale researchers said, as Germany’s top diplomat on Saturday described the situation there as „apocalyptic.“
At war with the regular army since April 2023, the Rapid Support Forces seized El-Fasher on Sunday, pushing the military out of its last stronghold in the western Darfur region after a grinding 18-month siege.
Since the city’s fall, reports have emerged of summary executions, sexual violence, attacks on aid workers, looting and abductions, while communications remain largely cut off.
Survivors from El-Fasher who reached the nearby town of Tawila have told AFP of mass killings, children shot before their parents, and civilians beaten and robbed as they fled.
Hayat, a mother of five who fled the city, said that „young men travelling with us were stopped“ along the way by paramilitaries and „we don’t know what happened to them“.
Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab said fresh satellite images from Friday showed „no large-scale movement“, giving them reason to believe much of the population may be „dead, captured, or in hiding.“
The lab identified at least 31 clusters of objects consistent with human bodies between Monday and Friday, across neighborhoods, university grounds and military sites.
„Indicators that mass killing is continuing are clearly visible“, the lab said.
