Mass killings likely persist in Sudan’s El-Fasher days after fall to RSF, researchers say

PORT SUDAN, Sudan — New satellite imagery suggests that mass killings are likely continuing in and around the Sudanese city of El-Fasher, Yale researchers say, days after it fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

At war with the regular army since April 2023, the RSF seized El-Fasher on Sunday, pushing the army out of its last stronghold in the western Darfur region after a grinding 18-month siege.

Since the city’s fall, reports have emerged of summary executions, sexual violence, attacks on aid workers, looting, and abductions, while communications remain largely cut off.

A report by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab released yesterday says fresh images gave them reason to believe much of the population may be “dead, captured, or in hiding.”

The lab identified at least 31 clusters of objects consistent with human bodies between Monday and Friday, across neighbourhoods, university grounds, and military sites.

“Indicators that mass killing is continuing are clearly visible,” the lab says.