The Fall of El-Fasher Darfur

Washington, DC., 11 November 2025—

El-Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur in western Sudan, had been under siege for 18 months. The town had become one of the most contested and dire flashpoints in the ongoing civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The RSF built an earthen wall around the city to prevent anything from entering or exiting. Supply lines were cut, humanitarian access blocked, and the town isolated. Then, troops aligned with the SAF abandoned the city, allowing it to be taken by the RSF. The fall of El-Fasher means that the RSF now controls all of Darfur’s five states. If Sudan is partitioned, basically, the RSF controls the west, and the Sudanese militia will control the east. This is not a favorable outcome.

El-Fasher was a major hub of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from earlier conflicts. The current civil conflict has produced more than 13 million displaced persons. Its collapse means a major humanitarian catastrophe that is not only about military control, but also mass civilian suffering, displacement, and genocidal dimensions.

In August 2025, UNICEF estimated that 600,000 people, half of them children, had been displaced from El-Fasher and surrounding neighborhoods. When El-Fasher fell, there were 260,000 people left in the city – 130,000 children. However, the Norwegian Refugee Council says less than 6,000 people made it to the nearest refugee camp. Those who did survive the 40-mile journey over many days told stories about torture, beatings, and witnessing executions. But still, what happened to the rest of the people?

Violence at the hands of the RSF is reminiscent of the horrific Rwandan genocide. The Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at Yale School of Public Health was looking at El-Fasher via satellite imagery. The HRL reported an explosion of objects that are the size and shape of dead bodies on the ground, and that there is discoloration on the ground, around those clusters of bodies from all the blood. You can literally see the blood stains and bodies of the dead in El-Fasher from space.

Ethnic violence is driving a vast amount of the atrocities. The RSF is predominantly Arab. There is a systematic and intentional process of ethnically cleansing indigenous non-Arab communities through forced displacement and summary executions. RSF soldiers have posted videos of themselves executing civilians and bragging about it. There are images of people being carpet bombed in the desert as they try to escape. Men and boys are being separated from women and girls and then being summarily executed. Women and girls are being abducted. Children are being forcibly recruited to fight.

According to UNICEF, since the siege began in April 2024, more than 1,100 grave violations against children in El-Fasher have been verified. These included the killing and maiming of more than 1,000 children, as well as rape, gang rape, abduction, and recruitment.

UNICEF also reported severe acute malnutrition (SAM) skyrocketing among children. The siege has prevented therapeutic food and medical supplies from arriving. Civilians in El-Fasher were already in the midst of a famine. They were eating animal feed and food waste to survive. Disease outbreaks have compounded the crisis. A cholera outbreak in the broader Darfur region has hit hard in and around El-Fasher.

There has been sustained violence against civilians, hospitals, schools, and displacement camps. Numerous hospitals and schools have been hit by shelling. The Saudi Maternal Teaching Hospital was the last remaining working hospital in El-Fasher. The World Health Organization (WHO) said the RSF brutally executed everyone they could find in the hospital. At least 500 people were killed.

The Darfur Network for Human Rights (DNHR) report of summary executions, abductions, forced recruitment of young men, use of women and children as human shields, and indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas.

Save the Children responded in Tawila, as many families are arriving with nothing. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) indicated that 100% of children under five years of age are malnourished. Children are witnessing killings and are traumatized. They’ve lost family members or were separated from loved ones. They are struggling to cope.

NGOs and human rights organizations have warned that the RSF is repeating patterns of atrocities seen previously in Darfur, including ethnic targeting of non-Arab communities, mass killings of civilians, sexual violence, and systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) also described the situation in El-Fasher as “collective punishment” with blocked access to food, medicine, and safe evacuation routes, which may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

El-Fasher’s plight is not just another war zone; it is a humanitarian nightmare. The combination of siege warfare, mass displacement, famine, disease, and reported atrocities makes it among the most urgent crises on earth today. The world must act now, for the sake of children, women, and men, whose lives hang in the balance.

Photo credit: Daraja Oula, El-Fasher, 27 October 2025. Clusters of objects and ground discoloration. 13.6329010, 25.3271401 – Imagery collected over the Daraja Oula neighborhood in El-Fasher on 27 October 2025, shows the presence of clusters of objects, ground discoloration, and light technical vehicles. The objects within these clusters measure between 1.5 meters – 2 meters in length. A group of light technical vehicles appears to be blocking the road near where there appears to be red discoloration on the ground. One cluster of objects is flanked by 3 light technical vehicles. By Yale School of Public Health: Humanitarian Research Lab