RSF Under Hemedti Erased El-Fasher From the Map

Three hundred thousand people lived in El-Fasher before they became targets. One year after the city fell, no one can say how many of them died, because the people who knew are dead, have fled, or are being held. On October 26, 2025, after months of siege, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, seized the capital of North Darfur. Today, aid workers, observers, and survivors describe a "ghost town." We should be talking about a crime that must not go unpunished.

It has to be said plainly, because too many capitals prefer to speak of "chaos" or "a war between two generals." This was not a street fight that went wrong. It was an organized campaign of destruction against a civilian population, carried out by an armed force that chose to kill, empty, and terrorize. On February 19, 2026, an independent international fact-finding mission mandated by the UN concluded that El-Fasher showed "hallmarks of genocide." That word is heavy. It should weigh on every one of us.

The numbers already tell most of the story. The International Organization for Migration estimates that around 100,000 people managed to flee during the offensive. A hundred thousand human beings walked toward the desert, toward Chad, or toward other towns in Sudan, without water, without money, often with nothing but the clothes on their backs. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented nearly 6,000 deaths during the attack, whether they fell under bombs or were shot deliberately. But that figure is a floor. Researchers at Yale University, analyzing satellite imagery, put the toll at tens of thousands. Between the floor and the high estimate lie entire families whose fate is still unknown.

Think about what "thousands of civilians missing" really means. Behind those words are mothers who do not know whether their sons are alive, children who watched their fathers executed in front of them, young men locked up for being identified as belonging to the wrong clan or ethnic group. Testimony gathered by humanitarian teams describes civilians killed while trying to flee, arbitrary detention, and sexual violence used as a weapon of war. This is what statistics become when no one is watching: lives torn away, then erased.

And yet the question that should haunt us is this: how did a paramilitary force with no capacity to govern a country manage to seize and destroy a city of 300,000 people in a matter of months? The answer runs through weapons, money, and complicity. Expert investigations and reports describe a steady flow of arms and financing reaching the RSF, notably through the United Arab Emirates, which denies any involvement. The same investigations describe the opaque channels of gold extracted in Darfur, which fund the war machine before entering international markets. We are not asking anyone to believe blindly. We are demanding that this be investigated, seriously, publicly, and without diplomatic shelter.

It would be dishonest to present this war as a story of good against evil. The Sudanese army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has also committed abuses, bombed civilian areas, and obstructed humanitarian access. Sudan suffered a coup in 2021 that shattered the democratic transition born of the 2019 revolution. Both generals betrayed the people who watched them fight for power while their families starved. But nuance must never become an excuse. Genocide cannot be relativized, and those who commit it must answer to justice, whatever uniform they wear.

What is happening in El-Fasher is part of a long history. In the early 2000s, Darfur already endured massacres that led to the International Criminal Court being seized of the situation. Twenty years later, the same logic of militias, impunity, and manipulation of identities is back. The world has promised "never again" after every African tragedy. We heard those promises in Darfur, in Rwanda, in Libya, in the Sahel. Each time, those responsible kept their fortunes, their passports, and their allies. Each time, it was civilians who paid the price.

So what must be done? First, the UN Security Council must impose targeted, real sanctions on RSF commanders and on the financial networks that feed them, including gold intermediaries and arms brokers. Second, the arms embargo must be enforced, not merely announced in resolutions that no one verifies. The International Criminal Court must receive the resources and political backing it needs to prosecute those responsible for crimes committed in El-Fasher. The African Union, which suspended Sudan after the 2021 coup, must open a negotiation space that puts the protection of civilians and humanitarian corridors ahead of calculations of power.

We are not starting from zero. Botswana built its prosperity on strong institutions, an independent judiciary, and disciplined management of its natural resources. Mauritius has shown that rule of law and an open economy can transform a country within a decade. Senegal proved in 2024 that peaceful democratic transfer through the ballot box is possible, even amid a difficult economic climate. These examples matter because they say the same thing: security and prosperity are born of accountability, transparency, and respect for rights. Sudan needs this path. Its civilians have been demanding it for years, in resistance committees, underground clinics, and relief networks that fed families under bombardment.

This is where Sudanese civil society must be supported, not smothered. The doctors, volunteers, and journalists documenting crimes in El-Fasher risk their lives every day. Donors and states must fund their work, protect their archives, and guarantee that the evidence does not disappear. African private business, for its part, must refuse to launder gold stained with blood and must stop doing deals with intermediaries whose money comes from the massacre of civilians. Every transaction counts.

What happened in El-Fasher is a stain on our continent, and that stain was not made by the West or by Asia. It was made by armed men who chose to kill their neighbors, with the help of accomplices who preferred profit to justice. We have every right to demand better from our leaders, from our regional institutions, and from international partners who claim to be committed to human rights.

So here is what we demand. We demand that the UN publicly name these facts for what they are and that it activate the mechanisms for prosecution. We demand that the African Union stop looking away and place the protection of civilians at the center of its work. We demand that the states that finance, arm, or shelter those responsible for these crimes be held to account. And we demand that every African who reads these lines refuse indifference. Share the testimonies of survivors, press your elected representatives, support the journalists covering Sudan, and demand a clear position from your government. El-Fasher must not become a city we forget. It must become proof that we fought to ensure this never happens again.

Based on reporting by ACSS-EMAIL