In central Sudan, where desert winds and echoes of two years of civil war collide, a tragedy has been unfolding in recent days that has left the world community cold. According to the UN migration agency (IOM), at least 36,825 civilians have fled five locations in North Kordofan since 26 October, when the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) captured the town of El Fasher in North Darfur. Most of them, mostly on foot, were heading to Tawila - a town already overrun with 652,000 internally displaced people, The Guardian reported.
El Fasher, the last bastion of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in Darfur, fell after an 18-month siege on 26 October 2025. The SAF, the successor to the Janjaweed militias responsible for the genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s, declared the conquest "decisive turn". But the reality is darker: satellite images from the Yale Humanitarian Research Laboratory show body parts strewn across the streets and large bloodstains visible from space.
According to Sudan's medical network, at least 1,500 civilians died in the first three days, including 460 patients and staff at a children's hospital where RSF fighters carried out massacres right in their beds, Al Jazeera reported. Survivors described scenes of RSF separating people by ethnicity, gender and age, holding them for ransom or crushing them with vehicles. One of the messages made visible on social media shows an elderly man surrounded by bodies being shot at close range by a rebel.
This brutality is not accidental. The RSF, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagal (Hemedti), has targeted non-Arab ethnic groups such as the Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit, reminiscent of the 2003 genocide in which over 200 000 people died, as The Guardian recalled. Mirjana Spoljaric, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), warned: "It's a history that repeats itself, and it gets worse every time the city falls into the hands of the other side." A video released by the RSF shows how their commander Shiraz Khalid calls for the spread of terror to northern states, including the rape of women for "cleansing their lines". According to Al Jazeera, 300 women and children were killed in the first two days.
The conflict, which erupted in April 2023 as a power struggle between General Abd al-Fattah al-Burhan's SAF and the RSF, has claimed over 40,000 lives and displaced 12 million people - half the population, according to the UN. The capture of El Fasher allowed the RSF to take control of all of Darfur, a third of the country, and threaten key logistical hubs like El Obeid in Kordofan.
Locals report an increase in military presence on both sides; Suleiman Babiker of Um Smeima told Agence France-Presse: "We have stopped going to the farms, we are afraid of clashes." The fighting spread to Bara, where the RSF killed five Red Cross volunteers.
The humanitarian situation is dire. The Integrated Food Security Classification (IFSC) has confirmed famine in El Fasher and Kadugli, with 20 other areas in Darfur and Kordofan at risk, as reported by the UN. Tens of thousands of trapped people have no access to food, water or medical assistance; the ICRC reports that refugees are falling from exhaustion on the move. Although the Quad Group (US, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt) has endorsed a "roadmap" for a three-month humanitarian ceasefire, nothing has materialized.
The RSF, backed by the UAE, is using British military equipment to commit acts of genocide, as the UN warns. The international community is too late to respond. The International Criminal Court (ICC) collects evidence of mass murder and rape in El Fasher, following the conviction of Ali Kushayb for Darfur crimes. Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations Martha Pobee talking about "ethnically motivated reprisals" and warns of patterns from Darfur. Pope Leo XIII, in a prayer on Sunday, called for an immediate ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian corridors.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned the massacres at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in Istanbul: "No one in their heart can accept these attacks on civilians." Sudanese Ambassador to Egypt Imadelddin Mustafa Adawi called the RSF terrorists and refused to negotiate.
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