Rebels Post Videos of Mass Killings in Darfur as the World Watches
EL FASHER, SUDAN – Disturbing videos circulating online appear too show Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters celebrating mass killings in El Fasher, Sudan, following the city’s fall in late October. The footage, depicting scenes of violence including fighters shouting ”God is great” over corpses and forcing men to dig their own graves, underscores a deepening humanitarian catastrophe and escalating ethnic violence in the Darfur region.
El Fasher,once home to a million people,had seen its population dwindle to approximately 260,000 by the time government forces retreated,leaving the city vulnerable to the RSF. Prior to the takeover, the RSF constructed a thirty-five-mile berm around El Fasher in early May, effectively blocking food and humanitarian aid, forcing residents to survive on grass and animal feed.
The RSF’s actions are raising fears of a renewed genocide in Darfur, echoing the atrocities committed by its predecessor institution, the Janjaweed, in the early 2000s, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 300,000 people.
“They’re ethnically cleansing. They’re killing, they’re destroying,” stated Altahir Hashim, a Sudanese human-rights activist from Cairo, whose family, members of the Zaghawa ethnic group, were forced to flee to El Fasher years ago. He reported the loss of two of his brothers. “After almost twenty-three years,genocide never ended. The world has just stood there watching, not taking any concrete action.”
Analysis from the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale school of Public Health, utilizing satellite imagery from NASA and commercial sources, suggests the scale of the killings is immense. Nathaniel Raymond, the lab’s executive director, described the imagery as revealing a disturbing pattern: ”We are talking tens upon tens of thousands of potential dead in five days.” The team’s analysis identified numerous images resembling the shapes of “C”s and “J”s – patterns created by individuals falling to the ground while being shot – accompanied by visible bloodstains.
The RSF distanced itself from a local commander, known as Abu Lulu, after the fall of El Fasher, claiming his arrest. Though,Al Jazeera reports he has continued to post on social media.
The berm erected by the RSF to prevent aid from entering El Fasher now also hinders escape, with only 35,000 people confirmed to have fled the city. raymond’s team has begun referring to El Fasher as “the Killbox.”
The violence disproportionately targets non-Arab Sudanese ethnic minorities, notably the Fur and Zaghawa, who have been at the forefront of the RSF’s attacks. The RSF’s core membership consists of nomadic Arabs.
“The world hasn’t caught up to what a big deal El Fasher is,” Raymond warned, highlighting the urgent need for international attention and intervention.
