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GENEVA: The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have committed numerous crimes against humanity in Sudan’s civil war, in particular in their siege of El-Fasher in western Darfur, UN investigators said Friday.
The United Nations’ fact-finding mission for Sudan determined in a new report that the RSF had “committed crimes against humanity, notably murder, torture, forced displacement, persecution on ethnic grounds, and other inhumane acts.”
It also found evidence of war crimes by both sides in the conflict between the regular army and the RSF, which has killed tens of thousands of people since it broke out in April 2023.
“Our findings leave no room for doubt: civilians are paying the highest price in this war,” mission chief Mohamed Chande Othman said in a statement.
“Both sides have deliberately targeted civilians through attacks, summary executions, arbitrary detention, torture, and inhuman treatment in detention facilities, including denial of food, sanitation, and medical care,” he said.
“These are not accidental tragedies but deliberate strategies amounting to war crimes.”
While faulting both sides in the brutal conflict, the investigators highlighted in particular the paramilitary force’s brutality in El-Fasher, which it has besieged since May 2024.
“RSF, during the siege of El-Fasher and surrounding areas, committed myriad crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, enslavement, rape, sexual slavery, sexual violence,” the statement said, also pointing to “forced displacement and persecution on ethnic, gender and political grounds.”
“The RSF and its allies used starvation as a method of warfare and deprived civilians of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, medicine and relief supplies — which may amount to the crime against humanity of extermination,” it added.
The fact-finding mission demanded international action to bring perpetrators of such crimes to justice.
“Accountability is not optional — it is a legal and moral imperative to protect civilians and prevent further atrocities,” mission member Mona Rishmawi said in the statement.

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense agency said 19 people were killed on Friday in a series of Israeli strikes in and around Gaza City, which the Israeli military is planning to conquer.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the attacks hit buildings and tents housing displaced Gazans in several neighborhoods and on the outskirts of the city, where the United Nations says more than a million people are facing famine.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military requested timeframes and coordinates to comment on specific incidents.
Israel has stepped up its bombardment of Gaza City since saying it would launch a full-scale offensive to capture it. Army spokesman Nadav Shoshani said Thursday the start of the campaign would not be announced in order to “maintain the element of surprise.”
Another army spokesman, Effie Defrin, said Thursday that Israeli troops already controlled 40 percent of the city.
Israel expects its new offensive will displace around a million people toward the south.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency or the Israeli military.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,231 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.