UN rights office says RSF atrocities committed during capture of Sudan city amount to war crimes News
RomanDeckert, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
UN rights office says RSF atrocities committed during capture of Sudan city amount to war crimes

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report Friday detailing human rights violations committed by  the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during their final assault on the Sudanese city of El Fasher, which began on October 14, 2025.

According to the report, atrocities committed during the RSF’s final assault on El Fasher amount to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. It documents more than 6,000 killings in the first three days of the offensive and a pattern of rape and gang rape against women and girls, particularly those from ethnic minority groups.

The 29-page report details numerous war crimes including the crimes of murder; intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects; launching indiscriminate attacks; use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare; attacks directed against medical and humanitarian personnel; infliction of sexual violence, including rape; torture and other cruel treatment; acts of pillage; and the conscription, enlistment, and use of children in hostilities. The report used the legal frameworks of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL) for identifying war crimes.

Speaking about the report, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stated that “there must be credible and impartial investigations to establish criminal responsibility … whether fair and independent Sudanese courts, use of universal and extraterritorial jurisdiction in third states, before the International Criminal Court (ICC) or other mechanisms.”

According to a report published by the ICC in early 2025, the Court is in “final steps” of presenting arrest applications for war crimes committed in Sudan by the RSF and other factions. The ICC has convicted previous leaders of the Janjaweed militia for crimes committed in Darfur between 2003 and 2004. Janjaweed evolved into the RSF in 2013.

Sudan also brought a case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for violating the genocide convention. The ICJ later dismissed the claim on the grounds that the ICJ does not have the jurisdiction to hear the case.

The UN report was compiled through interviews with over 140 victims and witnesses in late 2025 and a visit by Volker Türk to Sudan in early January 2026. The testimony of those interviewed was corroborated with secondary sources along with video and satellite imaging.

The report comes amid a conflict in Sudan which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF. The conflict has been described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Türk has also recently called for “immediate international action” to “halt the bloodshed.”

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