Sudan’s split in two (again) is now more concrete
‘Hemedti’ now controls all of Darfur, continuing the genocide that began with the Janjaweed.
Khalid Elwalid in Khartoum
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized El Fasher this week after besieging the city for more than 500 days. It was the last Darfuri city not under the paramilitary group’s control. The 6th Infantry Division of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and allied groups withdrew on Monday. This brought El Fasher’s long resistance to an end and gave the RSF control of all five states in the Darfur region.
The RSF – first known to the world as the Janjaweed militia responsible for the Darfur genocide between 2003 and 2005 – began its siege of El Fasher in May 2024. Hundreds of thousands of people were trapped inside the city, many of whom had fled there during the earlier genocide.
As the siege dragged on, food ran out and new supplies stopped coming in. Some people fled El Fasher to areas such as Tawila and the Zamzam camp for displaced people but by late 2024, the RSF and allied militia had cut off safe passage. The fighters extorted “exit fees” and conscripted or executed men and boys older than 17 years. They captured and raided Zamzam camp – destroying it, executing aid workers, and forcing the survivors to flee. By the time El Fasher fell, about 250,000 people were still inside the city.
Between Monday and Tuesday, militia linked to Al-Tahir Hajar, Al-Hadi Idris, and Suleiman Sandal poured into El Fasher. These warlords are allied with RSF leader “Hemedti” Hamdan Dagalo and their militia are notorious for massacres. The International Organisation for Migration says a new wave of civilians is now fleeing. Its Displacement Tracking Matrix reports 26,000 newly displaced people since El Fasher’s fall.
Graphic videos circulating on social media, many filmed by the fighters themselves, show ongoing massacres in El Fasher and along the road to Tawila. In one clip, a commander known as Abu Lulu boasts that he “lost count after reaching 2,000” killings. Displaced residents say hundreds of people were executed at a hospital, among them patients – a report the UN confirmed.
Satellite images analysed by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab show mounds resembling human bodies near the wall the RSF built around the city to entrench the siege. There are more apparent bodies in other parts of the city, resulting from what is presumed to be house-to-house raids by the militia. The lab’s director, Nathaniel Raymond, urged the US government to deploy armed drones over El Fasher. The “eyes in the sky”, Raymond argued at a press conference on Tuesday, would send a message to the RSF that its actions are being watched.
The ongoing atrocities echo the earlier Darfur genocide when government-backed Janjaweed militias systematically attacked non-Arab communities. They killed about 300,000 people and displaced 2.5-million more. The International Criminal Court later issued an arrest warrant for former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir. As the RSF – rebranded from Janjaweed – leads the El Fasher assault, survivors see this as another phase of the campaign that started two decades ago.
“For decades, we’ve been warning that the Darfur genocide never ended,” said Emtithal Mahmoud, a survivor of that genocide. “We warned that we would see the final phase of the Darfur genocide. After the Zamzam massacre, after the El Geneina massacre, we warned that the El Fasher massacre would happen.”
Dagalo previously called the El Fasher violence a “tribal conflict” he isn’t involved in, according to the BBC.
‘Beyond desperate’
From El Fasher, fleeing civilians are walking through open desert towards Tawila, about 60km away. No vehicles are available. Many of those leaving are already weak from a months-long famine caused by the siege.
Mawada Ahmed, a doctor who is currently volunteering in Tawila, told The Continent only a small number of people had managed to reach the town by Wednesday afternoon. She described the condition of the new arrivals as “beyond desperate” – wounded, malnourished, and extremely weak. Among them are children as young as six weeks old, arriving with siblings after losing parents. “We immediately check if they need IV fluids, food, or water, but even as we try to help, many don’t survive,” Ahmed said.
Ahmed believes some women and girls may have suffered sexual violence but medical volunteers are waiting several days before asking questions that could retraumatise them. “I couldn’t bring myself to ask the new arrivals what they had seen or experienced on the road,” she said.
Tawila already hosts thousands of families who had managed to flee earlier. The town is running out of supplies. The only food left is ambaz – animal fodder made from sesame and bean husks. It is mixed with water and given to the children. The Tawila Emergency Room is appealing for urgent support “to save lives and alleviate suffering”.
“We don’t have enough resources or funding to make even enough meals a day,” said Mahmoud, the Darfur genocide survivor. She is now a director at the IDP Humanitarian Network, Sudan’s largest indigenous-led aid network. The group has been sending cash transfers to volunteers inside Sudan during the ongoing war between the SAF and the RSF, which began in April 2023.
Appreciate the direction to Elhassan’s Linktree resource. I’ve donated to one of the relief campaigns 🙏🏻
Guess it’s okay because it’s Arabs doing it?