Human Rights Watch – (Nairobi) – Dozens of videos posted on social media in recent days show Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carrying out extrajudicial killings and other serious violations against people fleeing North Darfur’s capital, El Fasher, Human Rights Watch said today.

Thousands of people are leaving following the RSF takeover of the city on October 26, 2025. The takeover is the culmination of the 18-month siege of the city and relentless attacks by the armed group that triggered famine in displacement camps in and around the city. The unlawful attacks on fleeing people raise alarm over the fate of the tens of thousands of civilians who, as of last week, remained in the city.

“The horrific images from El Fasher bear the hallmarks of the Rapid Support Forces’ record of mass atrocities,” said Federico Borello, interim executive director at Human Rights Watch. “If the world doesn’t act urgently, civilians will bear the full brunt of more heinous crimes. The RSF’s backers, notably the United Arab Emirates, should press its leaders to rein in their forces, while global leaders should take robust measures against the RSF leadership.”

The United Nations Security Council should urgently act to prevent further atrocities, Human Rights Watch said. Officials from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE, known as the Quad, who recently gathered in Washington, DC, should make clear that the RSF leadership will be held to account, including through immediate asset freezes and travel bans.

On October 26, reports began to circulate that the RSF had taken over the military garrison hosting the Sudanese Armed Forces’ (SAF) 6th infantry division of El Fasher and the city’s airport. The RSF already controls all other major cities in the Darfur region.

In recent months, the RSF had dug a trench and built a sand berm encircling the city, and RSF fighters have largely prevented traders and aid groups from reaching the city, leaving civilians to resort to eating animal fodder. The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) reported that 75 percent of the 165 children under 5 it screened from El Fasher on October 18 and 19 were acutely malnourished.

Local responders and media reported a spike in drone strikes since September which killed and injured civilians. On October 15, an activist told Human Rights Watch that he had survived a drone attack that day that killed two civilians and injured two others.

Civilians fleeing El Fasher have faced serious abuses along the way, including rape, pillaging, and killings.

These abuses escalated with the RSF victory. Videos circulating on social media since October 26, analyzed and verified by Human Rights Watch, show RSF fighters celebrating over large numbers of dead men and women, both in uniform and civilian clothes, executing apparent civilians, and taunting, abusing, and killing severely injured people.

Human Rights Watch geolocated eight videos filmed next to the berm encircling the city, roughly 8 kilometers northwest of El Fasher. One video, filmed from atop the berm, shows dozens of bodies, some in military fatigues, in the trench below. In another video, an RSF fighter wearing a white scarf crouches next to a man in civilian clothing with a bandage on his upper right leg lying on the ground. As the man begs for mercy, the fighter says, “I will have no mercy on you … we are here to kill.” Then the fighter stands and shoots the man five times with an AK-pattern rifle. In another video filmed around the berm, an RSF fighter is heard shouting, “We won’t give guarantees to prisoners.”