The fall of El Fasher

On twenty-sixth October twenty twenty-five, after five hundred days of siege, the Rapid Support Forces captured El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state in Sudan.

Explicit calls for ethnic cleansing

The RSF pledged to cleanse the city and explicitly called for the elimination of non-Arab communities, notably the semi-nomadic Zaghawa and the Fur, Darfur's largest ethnic group.

Death toll remains disputed

The United Nations estimated six thousand people were killed, but researchers studying satellite imagery suspect the death toll is much higher, in the tens of thousands.

Nearly one hundred thousand fled

According to the International Organisation for Migration, nearly one hundred thousand people managed to flee El Fasher. Thousands more civilians are missing or captured.

A ghost town emerges

In January, humanitarian organisations visiting El Fasher for the first time since the RSF took control described it as a ghost town with few civilians remaining.

Residents fear ethnic replacement

Displaced residents believe the RSF is replacing El Fasher's original inhabitants with members of nomadic Arab tribes and giving them forged ownership documents to stay permanently.

“They're bringing in people from outside and giving them our homes. They're even giving them documents to prove they're the owners.”

Only a fraction have returned

Solidarités International estimates between forty thousand and sixty thousand people have returned or come and go regularly, out of a pre-war population of at least three hundred thousand.

Trauma keeps people away

Returnees are deterred by destroyed markets with exorbitant prices and by the trauma of the five hundred day siege. People do not feel ready to return, aid workers say.

“For now, because of the trauma and violence of those five hundred days, people don't feel at all ready to return.”

Thousands held in Dagris prison

Between thirteen thousand and nineteen thousand five hundred people were held at Dagris prison earlier this year, several times its official capacity of four thousand five hundred.

Conditions described as horrific

Detainees at Dagris are crammed into small cells, denied sunlight for weeks, and face diseases including cholera and dengue fever. Mortality has risen sharply, with four deaths weekly.

“The detainees have no rights and no contact with their families. The cells are overcrowded. There are lots of diseases, such as cholera and dengue fever.”

Prisoners used as forced labour

The RSF uses prisoners as labourers in construction, laundry and cleaning. An estimated seventy-three medical personnel and several journalists, including Muammar Ibrahim of Al Jazeera, are detained.

Fighting spreads to Kordofan

Darfur is now almost entirely under RSF control. The fighting has shifted to the Kordofan region, where the UN has warned El Fasher's grim history could be repeated.