Blood-Stained Ground Visible From Space as RSF Carries out Systematic Mass Killings in El-Fasher
A displaced woman resting in Tawila, in Sudan’s western Darfur region, on Oct. 28, 2025, after fleeing from El-Fasher. Photo: NPR
A displaced woman resting in Tawila, in Sudan’s western Darfur region, on Oct. 28, 2025, after fleeing from El-Fasher. Photo: NPR
Since April 2023, Sudan’s civil war has raged between the Sudanese paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and the country’s military, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). For the past 18 months, RSF forces have surrounded El-Fasher, a city in southwestern Sudan, putting the lives of 300,000 civilians at risk. On Oct. 28, 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) received reports that over 450 people were murdered at the last running hospital in El-Fasher. Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) also released a report on Oct. 28, 2025, “Day Two of RSF Control: Mass Killings Continue in El-Fasher”, corroborating the reports that the WHO received. HRL discovered mass killings at a former Children’s Hospital in El-Fasher, which has been out of operation for over a year. On Oct. 27, 2025, satellite images of the hospital show groups of people on the property, while satellite imagery from Oct. 28, 2025, shows slightly larger objects in the same areas; the large groups of people from Oct. 27 were “subsequently killed” and only their deceased bodies remained on the ground. The HRL also corroborated reports of mass killings at the last running hospital in El-Fasher, capturing satellite imagery on Oct. 28, 2025, that showed “reddish discoloration on the ground” and “potential human remains”. Through satellite images from Oct. 27 and 28, 2025, HRL determined there was most likely “systematic mass killings of people” outside of El-Fasher and near the earthen wall that was constructed through the city.
The killings began when, on Oct. 26, 2027, the RSF seized control of the Sudanese army’s sixth Division Headquarters in El-Fasher. Capturing the headquarters allowed the RSF to seize the entire city, which was SAF’s last foothold in Darfur, a region in western Sudan. Beginning in May 2025, the RSF had constructed an earthen wall around El-Fasher, trapping civilians inside. The wall’s construction has been monitored by Yale’s HRL, which described the wall as a “literal kill box” surrounding El-Fasher. Additionally, RSF forces have received support from other nations, such as the United Arab Emirates, and from Emirati-allied leaders in nearby countries such as Ethiopia and Chad. RSF’s control of El-Fasher sets off a de facto split of Sudan, where RSF controls the southwestern and western regions and SAF controls the eastern region and Khartoum, Sudan’s capital.
On the left is a satellite image of a village west of El-Fasher on July 6, 2025; on the right is a satellite image from July 24, 2025, which shows the earthen wall constructed. Photo: BBC
Before El-Fasher had fallen to RSF, a widespread fear was that in El-Fasher, there would be a repeat of what happened in El Geneina. In late 2023, El Geneina, a city in Darfur with a population of about 540,000, was captured by the RSF. Due to the RSF’s close ties to groups promoting Arab supremacy ideology and committing crimes against humanity towards non-Arab civilian populations, groups such as the NGO Human Rights Watch have called the RSF’s actions ethnic cleansing. Between April and Nov. 2023, the RSF had a systematic campaign for the removal and killing of the Massalit people, a non-Arab ethnic group living in El Geneina. In less than two months, thousands of civilians were killed. RSF fighters used derogatory racial slurs against non-Arab groups such as the Massalits, and RSF violence and intimidation led to an exodus of non-Arab citizens from El Geneina. To prevent displaced Massalits from returning home, the RSF systematically destroyed Massalit neighborhoods by bulldozing homes. As shown through satellite imagery from Oct. 27 and Oct. 28, 2025, RSF forces have already begun a similar systematic mass killing in El-Fasher.
Touma, holding her severely malnourished daughter, Masajed, one of the millions of children who are victims of Sudan’s Civil War. Photo: BBC
Along with mass killings in El Geneina and El Fasher, Sudan’s civil war has plunged the nation into the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Millions of civilians have had their daily lives destroyed by the fighting, and each carries heartbreaking stories of the horrors and sorrows of the war. One mother, Touma, and her family were displaced due to fighting between SAF and RSF near their home in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. Due to famine, Touma had to bring her malnourished twin daughters, Masajed and Manahil, to Bashaer Hospital in southern Khartoum. Although Bashaer Hospital offers free, basic treatment, the medication needed to save malnourished children must be paid for by their families. Touma could only afford medicine for one child, and made the impossible decision no parent should make: she chose to save Manahil. Touma, while holding a gravely sick Masajed, told BBC reporters, “I wish they could both recover and grow…and that I could watch them walking and playing together as they did before.” Masajed is one of the millions of innocent children in Sudan dying from starvation, becoming victims of the violence between the RSF and SAF forces. These children, who once had dreams for their future, are now suffering from the final stages of severe malnutrition, with their families left grieving and being constantly reminded of how the violence has upended their lives.
Millions in Sudan are being left without crucial resources for survival, such as food and basic healthcare. On Oct. 24, 2025, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban gave a press briefing on Sudan to the press, making clear how dire the situation in Sudan is, stating that “Sudan is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis”. He discussed how severe, acute malnutrition is rapidly spreading across the country, and over a million children either live in or near areas of famine. He also pointed out that fourteen million children in Sudan are out of school, and described this as “an entire generation lost without learning”. Now that El-Fasher has fallen to RSF forces, Sudan’s entire Darfur region is under RSF control, and millions are at risk of dying and need humanitarian aid to survive.