A militia is slaughtering civilians, to the point where blood-soaked earth can be seen from outer space. The slaughter is occurring in the city of el-Fasher in Sudan. The city was recently seized by a militia known as the Rapid Support Forces. It drove Sudan’s military from the city.
“A mother of three and a grandmother to one boy tells the outlet that they were running while RSF ‘were chasing us, they were firing missiles ahead and behind us.’ She says she then lost sight of her husband. The refugee and others were then caught. ‘They lined the men up…They shot them in front of us, they shot them in the street.'”
The BBC says that so many people in the city have been slaughtered that “blood-soaked earth” is “visible in satellite images of el-Fasher.” “Findings from researchers in the US” “show bodies piled en masse and red discoloration on the earth.” “One of the team, Nathaniel Raymond, told the BBC that the “discoloration of the ground… [is] consistent with individuals who have bled out onto the ground.”
Thomas van Linge, who has been tracking the progress of the war, said that “never before have I read about there being so much blood it could be spotted by satellite. But that’s now the reality in el-Fasher”.
Raymond says that in the beginning, he “couldn’t believe” what he was seeing. “The horror, scale, and velocity of killing happening now unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a quarter century of doing this work.”
Some refugees have managed to reach other places in Sudan after fleeing el-Fasher, generally showing signs of extreme hunger and dehydration. Sylvain Penicaud, Doctors Without Borders project coordinator in Tawila city, near el-Fasher, says medical teams are “facing a massive influx of people” fleeing the killings in el-Fasher: “In recent days, more than 1,000 people have arrived at night, by several trucks and [on foot], after an extremely dangerous journey between [el-Fasher] and Tawila,” he said.
He added that many were very weak and suffered from malnutrition and dehydration. Many also had “violence-related injuries.” He says at least 75% of children were malnourished, with more than a quarter in “very severe” condition.
Earlier, the RSF militia deliberately shelled a hospital and maternity ward, killing many there.
Last month, “Dozens of people were killed in the besieged Sudanese city of El Fasher” when the RSF “fired a missile into a mosque during morning prayers,” reported the New York Times.
Thousands of people died of starvation in el-Fasher after it was besieged by the RSF.
In January, the U.S. State Department formally declared that the Rapid Support Forces are committing genocide in Sudan, more than a year after the genocide began. “The RSF and allied militias have systematically murdered men and boys — even infants — on an ethnic basis, and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence,” the State Department said. As we noted in 2023, “militias aligned with the RSF…referred to locally as the Janjaweed, or ‘devils on horseback’ — were carrying out ethnic killings and have also looted and burned the palace of the sultan of the Masalit tribe. The Janjaweed are ethnically Arab militias; the Masalit are a local African tribe.” Moreover, the “RSF has targeted Masalit refugee camps, killed people attempting to escape to neighboring Chad, kidnapped and raped women and systematically killed influential figures in the community, such as tribal leaders.”
The RSF occupied most of Sudan’s capital Khartoum for over a year, and stole most of Khartoum’s copper wiring and destroyed its energy infrastructure. Because utilities can’t provide power, many residents are using solar panels to power their light bulbs and TVs. Temperatures in Khartoum reached 100 degrees today, but there is basically no air conditioning there.
