Amnesty accuses Sudanese paramilitary group RSF of committing war crimes in Darfur city of el-Fasher

CAIRO (AP) – Amnesty International on Tuesday said that atrocities committed by a Sudanese paramilitary group in a Darfur city constituted war crimes, the latest such accusation in the country’s devastating war.

In a report, the international rights group said that it gathered testimony describing barbarities carried out by the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, when its fighters wrestled control of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province, from the army late last month.

The group said that the atrocities included executing dozens of unarmed men, and raping women and girls. Amnesty said that other people were taken hostages by RSF fighters for ransom, and that witnesses said they saw “hundreds of dead bodies left lying” in the city’s streets and on main roads out of el-Fasher.

“This persistent, widespread violence against civilians constitutes war crimes and may also constitute other crimes under international law,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary-general.

The RSF didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The group has acknowledged that some of its fighters committed violations in the city and vowed to investigate.

The RSF, which has been at war with the Sudanese military for more than 2½ years, seized el-Fasher late in October after more than an 18-month siege. The city was the military’s last stronghold in the sprawling region of Darfur.

Witnesses told The Associated Press last month that RSF fighters went house to house, killing civilians and committing sexual assaults. The World Health Organization say that gunmen killed at least 460 people at a hospital, and abducted doctors and nurses.

Amnesty said in its report that the group’s researchers spoke with 28 survivors who managed to flee el-Fasher. The witnesses described “witnessing groups of men shot or beaten” and the taking of hostages for ransom.

The group said that RSF fighters sexually assaulted women and girls. It cited one woman who said that she and her 14-year-old daughter were raped by RSF fighters on Oct. 27 while they were trying to flee the city.

The woman said her daughter’s health condition deteriorated and she died in a clinic in Tawila, a town around 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of el-Fasher, which has become a hub for those fleeing RSF atrocities, according to Amnesty.

Another 29-year-old woman said that she was one of 11 women taken by RSF fighters and raped while they were attempting to flee the city on Oct. 26. She said she was raped three times by a fighter, while another one watched.

“The world must not look away as more details emerge about the RSF’s brutal attack on el-Fasher,” said Callamard, calling for holding accountable all those responsible for committing atrocities.

She lashed out at the United Arab Emirates over its alleged support of the RSF, which she said “is fueling a relentless cycle of violence against civilians in Sudan.”

“These atrocities were facilitated by the United Arab Emirates’ support for the RSF,” she said.

The UAE has long denied the accusation.

U.S. adviser for African affairs Massad Boulos told reporters in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday that the Sudanese army and the RSF haven’t formally accepted the Quad’s proposal for a humanitarian truce.

The Quad, which is made up of mediators from the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, have been trying to bring the war to an end and potentially paving the way for a democratic transition, which was hampered by a military coup in 2021. The latest proposal calls for a three-month humanitarian truce followed by a nine-month political process.

Boulos said during a joint news conference with top UAE adviser Anwar Gargash that the warring parties were repeatedly urged to accept this humanitarian truce presented as it is, without any preconditions.

On Sunday, Sudan’s top army Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan rejected the ceasefire proposal, saying in a video released by the military that it was unacceptable and “the worst yet,” accusing the mediators of being “biased” in their efforts to end the war. The following day, RSF commander Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, said in a video message posted on Telegram that the paramilitary agreed to a three-month humanitarian truce to facilitate aid deliveries.

Sudan’s war began in April 2023 over a power struggle between the miliary and the RSF. The conflict has killed more than 40,000 people – a figure rights groups consider a significant undercount – and has created a grave humanitarian crisis, with more than 14 million people displaced.

The RSF is largely made up of fighters from the Arab Janjaweed militia, which is accused of carrying out a government-backed genocidal campaign in Darfur in the 2000s in which around 300,000 people were killed.

The group has been accused of a series of atrocities over the course of the current war, and the Biden administration, in one of its last decisions, said that the RSF committed genocide in Darfur. The miliary has also been accused of atrocities – but not to the same level of the paramilitary force.