New UN Investigation: Rapid Support Forces’ Actions in El Fasher Indicate ‘Genocide’

The findings of an investigation conducted by the independent mission established by the UN Human Rights Council, and released in a new report today (Thursday), indicate that the mass killings of members of non-Arab communities when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the Sudanese city of El Fasher bear the hallmarks of genocide.

The UN mission stated that it found evidence proving that the RSF carried out a pattern of systematic and repeated targeting of individuals based on ethnicity, gender, and perceived political affiliation, including mass killings, rape, and torture, as well as subjecting a group to living conditions intended to destroy it – a key element of the crime of genocide under international law.

The mission added that these acts include “killing members of a protected ethnic group, causing serious bodily and psychological harm, and imposing living conditions intended to bring about the destruction of the group in whole or in part, all of which constitute the crime of genocide under international law.”

The report submitted to the Human Rights Council, entitled “Characteristics of Genocide in El Fasher,” stated that it concluded that “genocidal intent is the only reasonable conclusion that can be drawn from the systematic pattern of ethnically targeted killings, sexual violence, destruction, and public statements explicitly calling for the extermination of non-Arab communities, particularly the Zaghawa and Fur.”