Sudan medics demand international investigation over El Fasher mass graves
Medics accuse Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces of mass killings and body-burnings in El Fasher, calling for urgent international investigations as tens of thousands flee the city.
Doctors in Sudan have accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of attempting to cover up mass killings in El Fasher, North Darfur, by burying hundreds of civilians in mass graves and burning others after taking control of the city.
Reports indicate that the paramilitary group committed widespread atrocities after seizing El Fasher from the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in late October—a situation humanitarian groups describe as catastrophic.
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"The RSF has collected hundreds of bodies from the streets and neighbourhoods of the city, burying some in mass graves and burning others completely in a desperate attempt to conceal evidence of their crimes against civilians," the Sudan Doctors Network said in a statement on X on Sunday.
The group condemned the actions as part of a systematic genocide, holding RSF leadership fully responsible for the deaths of civilians, including women and children.
Horrific crimes
"What happened in El Fasher is not an isolated incident but rather another chapter in a full-fledged genocide, carried out by the RSF, blatantly violating all international and religious norms that prohibit the mutilation of corpses and guarantee the dead the right to a dignified burial," the medics said.
"The Sudan Doctors Network condemns these horrific crimes in the strongest possible terms, holding the leadership of the Rapid Support Forces fully responsible for these massacres."
The medics also urged the international community to launch independent investigations into the killings.
"The Network affirms that these crimes cannot be erased through concealment or burning, and calls on the international community to take immediate and urgent action to launch an independent international investigation into what is happening in El Fasher," they said.
Beyond humanitarian catastrophe
"The situation in El Fasher has gone beyond a humanitarian catastrophe to become a systematic genocide, targeting human life and dignity amid an appalling international silence that amounts to complicity."
On Saturday, the United Nations Human Rights Office in Sudan warned of escalating attacks in El Fasher as the RSF continues to tighten its control over the city.
"Over the past 10 days, El Fasher has witnessed an escalation of brutal attacks. It has become a city of grief," Li Fung, the UN's human rights representative in Sudan, said in a video published on X on Saturday.
"Civilians who survived 18 months of siege and hostilities are now enduring atrocities of an unimaginable scale," she added.
According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), about 82,000 people have fled El Fasher and surrounding areas since early November, seeking refuge in towns such as Tawila, Kebkabiya, Melit, and Kutum. Thousands remain stranded without food, shelter, or medical care, deepening the humanitarian crisis.
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