Satellite images appear to show attempts to dispose of bodies after RSF seized Sudan’s el-Fasher

CAIRO (AP) – New satellite images analyzed Friday appear to show further efforts by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to dispose of corpses after they seized and rampaged through the city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Images by the Colorado-based firm Vantor show a fire at the Saudi hospital in el-Fasher on Thursday near a collection of white objects seen days earlier in other Vantor photos.

The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab described the images as showing the “burning of objects that may be consistent with bodies.”

“The practice of burning bodies is not consistent with Islamic burial practices,” the Yale lab said in its report. “The apparent immolation of objects that may be consistent with human remains complicates any future effort to count the number of people killed since the fall of el-Fasher and to identify and return the remains to family members.”

The Associated Press separately accessed the Vantor images and identified objects corresponding to the Yale lab’s report, including the fire and the white objects. Such objects in other imagery from el-Fasher appear to correspond to dead bodies, showing the scale of the killings in the city.

Earlier satellite images of el-Fasher appear to show mass graves being dug and later covered at two sites in the city, one at a mosque just north of the Saudi hospital where some 460 people reportedly had been killed and another by a former children’s hospital that the RSF had been using as a prison.

The RSF has denied killing anyone at the Saudi hospital.

However, testimonies from those fleeing el-Fasher, online videos and satellite images offer an apocalyptic vision of the attack.

Another satellite image appeared to show the RSF likely blocking an exit to el-Fasher to the west. A new berm had been added to the site, the Yale lab said.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese army intercepted drones fired overnight by its rival paramilitary group on two cities in Sudan’s northeast, a military official said Friday.

The army official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss the matter, said 15 drones targeted Atbara, a city north of the capital, in River Nile province. He confirmed that strikes caused no casualties. Local media reports said residents heard explosions.

The official added that ground defenses intercepted a smaller-scale drone attack that also targeted Omdruman, the sister city of the capital Khartoum.

The RSF drone strikes come a day after the group announced that it agree to a humanitarian truce proposed by a U.S.-led mediator group known as the Quad.

A Sudanese military official told the AP on Thursday that the army welcomes the Quad’s proposal but will only agree to a truce when the RSF completely withdraws from civilian areas and give up weapons per previous peace proposals.

The war between the RSF and the military began in 2023, when tensions erupted between the two former allies that were meant to oversee a democratic transition after a 2019 uprising.

The fighting has killed at least 40,000 people, according to the WHO, and displaced 12 million. However, aid groups say the true death toll could be many times higher. Over 24 million people are also facing acute food insecurity, according to the World Food Program.

The U.S.-led plan for a truce would start with a three-month humanitarian truce followed by a nine-month political process, said Massad Boulos, a U.S. adviser for African affairs, earlier this week.

Also Friday, the U.N.’s top human rights body announced it will hold an emergency special session on Sudan on Nov. 14 over recent bloodshed and other violence against civilians in and around the Darfur city of el-Fasher.

The call for the special session by the Human Rights Council in Geneva was led by Britain, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway, and has drawn support from two dozen council members in the 47-member-country rights body so far.

The RSF’s announcement that it agreed to the truce comes more than a week after the group seized el-Fasher which had been under siege for over 18 months. It was also the last Sudanese military stronghold in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

UNICEF said Thursday that more than 81,000 people have been displaced from el-Fasher since Oct. 26, with rising needs for shelter, food, water and medical care but limited aid delivery.

The U.N. children agency’s report said it identified more than 850 children with acute malnutrition who are now receiving treatment. It added that violence, sexual assaults and looting of health facilities remain rampant across North Darfur, with women and children being the most vulnerable.

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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.