UN says RSF actions in el-Fasher amount to genocide

A United Nations investigation has concluded that atrocities committed by Sudan's Rapid Support Forces during the siege and capture of the city of el-Fasher constitute genocide. The findings, released on Wednesday, detail a systematic campaign of mass killings, gang rapes, abductions, and the deliberate use of starvation against civilians in the capital of North Darfur state.

The U.N. Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan reported that survivors described being raped in rooms where the bodies of recently killed family members were still present. The investigation found that the paramilitary force and its allies committed the war crime of starvation by imposing a prolonged siege on el-Fasher, impeding relief supplies, and shelling food production systems. The report states that the widespread and systematic pattern of conduct was part of an intended policy.

The RSF has consistently denied such abuses throughout more than three years of civil war against the Sudanese military, asserting that the accounts are manufactured by its enemies and leveling counter-accusations.

The mission's chairman, Mohamed Chande Othman, warned that the patterns documented in el-Fasher serve as a stark warning...