When El Fasher fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in October last year, Ahmed* was among thousands of civilians trying to flee the city. That journey cost him dear – his wife was killed by shrapnel and in the chaos he became separated from his two children. Ahmed’s tragic story didn’t end there. As the group he was travelling with approached the outskirts of El Fasher, they were intercepted by the RSF. ‘They asked us, “Are you soldiers, or are you civilians?” and we told them we are civilians,’ Ahmed* recalls.
‘They said, “In El Fasher, there are no civilians, everybody is a soldier.”’ The fighters then ordered four of the men to lie on the ground and ‘executed them’. Ahmed’s brother was one of those they murdered. Ahmed* reached the town of Tawila three days later, approximately 60km away. He is one of 28 people who have given detailed accounts to Amnesty of RSF atrocities during the fall of El Fasher after an 18-month siege. These witnesses include women survivors who told us how they were raped by RSF fighters, as were some of their daughters. They describe seeing men being beaten, shot
or taken hostage, and hundreds of dead bodies in the streets as they fled the city. El Fasher is the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur region and was the last major city in Darfur under control of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
It was home to over 1.5 million people, including hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had escaped the civil war in other parts of Darfur. Fighting erupted in Sudan in April 2023 between the SAF and RSF paramilitaries. Since then, other armed groups have joined the conflict, aligning themselves with either the SAF or the RSF. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed, while more than eight million people have been displaced within Sudan itself, with another four million fleeing to neighbouring countries. Meanwhile it is estimated that more than 30 million people, two-thirds of the population, require humanitarian assistance. Since the start of the conflict, Amnesty International has documented numerous human rights violations across the country. Civilians have been caught in the crossfire as
PHOTOS Left: Sudanese armed forces (SAF) soldiers in the eastern Sudan city of Gedaref, 14 August 2025. The SAF is fighting the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for control of the country © AFP/Getty Above: People fleeing the Zamzam camp after it was attacked by the RSF arrive in a
makeshift encampment near the town of Tawila, 13 April 2025 © AFP/ Getty
SPRING 2026 AMNESTY 17
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
