RSF kills at least 24 people in Sudanese city of El-Fasher
Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have once again attacked the besieged city of El-Fasher, killing at least 24 people and wounding 55 others, according to The New Arab plus agencies on August 28th.
According to the Sudan Doctors’ Network, the attack was launched on August 27th and took the form of artillery shelling. In a statement on X, the network explained that the RSF targeted the central market area and the Awlad Al-Reef neighbourhood of the city.
The network strongly decried this most recent RSF massacre, stating that “this heinous crime adds to a series of war crimes and acts of genocide targeting unarmed civilians in El Fasher for more than a year.”
It declared that it holds “the international community, the UN Security Council, and the African Union fully responsible for their silence and failure to confront these crimes.”
The network also called for prompt action to stop the violence, lift the siege, and put pressure on the RSF leadership to end what it labelled as “genocide and systematic starvation against defenceless civilians in El Fasher.
In June 2025, a top United Nations official warned that the RSF “continue to conduct ethnically motivated attacks against the Zaghawa, Masalit and Fur groups”, making the risk of genocide occurring in Darfur “very high.”
The city, which is the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, has been under siege by the RSF since May 2024, which has led to severe shortages of essential life sustaining resources such as food, medicine and fuel. International organisations have described El-Fasher as a “death trap.”
The UN commissioner for human rights revealed that in August, at least 89 civilians in and around El-Fasher were killed across just 10 days, including 16 who were summarily executed, according to Al Jazeera on August 28th.
The famine-stricken city and the nearby displacement camps have been the target of recurring and extremely violent attacks by the RSF as part of its campaign to flush out the last remaining stronghold of the Sudanese military in the Darfur region, who still control the city.
On August 13th, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy released a statement condemning an earlier RSF attack that killed 40 people in the Abu Shouk displacement camp outside El-Fasher. He cautioned that “this is not an isolated incident. It is part of a pattern of deliberate violence and brutality against civilians. The warring parties have a responsibility to end this needless suffering.”
The RSF has been locked into a highly destructive civil war against the Sudanese military since April 2023, after a power struggle turned violent. According to the United Nations and local authorities, the conflict has killed over 20,000 people and displaced a further 15 million.
However, a study conducted by various American universities places the estimated death toll much higher, sitting at around 130,000.
The New Arab plus agencies; Maghrebi.org; Al Jazeera; Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Want to chase the pulse of North Africa?
Subscribe to receive our FREE weekly PDF magazine
