RSF Commander admits "violations" after hundreds of civilians reportedly killed in el-Fasher

The leader of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has acknowledged that violations have taken place in El-Fasher and has vowed to investigate.

According to the United Nations, RSF fighters killed hundreds of people, including patients in a hospital, after they seized the city in western Darfur over the weekend. Eyewitnesses described the scene as a "killing field."

"There are violations that happened in el-Fasher. From here, we are announcing the formation of an investigation committee, and the announcement is not only talk," RSF Commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. "Now our committees have arrived in el-Fasher, an investigation committee should start immediately to hold any solider or officer who committed a crime or crossed their limits towards any human accountable."

The RSF has been fighting Sudanese Armed Forces for control of the country since 2023. It seized El-Fasher, North Darfur’s provincial capital and the army’s last stronghold in the region, after more than 500 days of siege.

Sheldon Yett, is the UNICEF Representative to Sudan:

“The situation is horrific , here we have a city that had been under siege for 600 days , no food could get in, no medicine get in, none of the basics of that community that children need could get in, and now we have seen residents are subject to the most horrific violence, most acute violence, so is absolutely horrific “

The UN migration agency said more than 36,000 people have fled el-Fasher, mostly to rural areas around the city, since Sunday.

UN refugee agency official Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet said the new arrivals told of widespread killings motivated by ethnic and political differences, including reports of people with disabilities shot dead because they were unable to flee, and others shot as they tried to escape.

Two years of civil war has killed more than 40,000 people in Sudan and has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with more than 14 million displaced.

The capture of el-Fasher raises fears that Africa’s third-largest nation may split again, nearly 15 years after oil-rich South Sudan gained independence following years of conflict.