On the morning of April 15, 2023, residents of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, faced the shock of fighting breaking out in their city, which rapidly spread to other parts of the country. Two years on, Sudan’s conflict, which pits the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and a multitude of armed groups and militias allied to these forces, has ravaged the country. The lives of tens of millions have been shattered, while tens of thousands of civilians have died.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allies have committed crimes against humanity and widespread war crimes, including as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Darfur. The SAF and their allies have also committed war crimes. Both sides have hampered aid, contributing to famine. Their leaders should be held to account.
Below are major Human Rights Watch reports documenting some of the serious civilian harm in the conflict and three of our key recommendations aimed at addressing the country-wide atrocities.
1
Tayba Village, Gezira state: The Sudan Shield Forces,
an armed group currently allied with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and
led by Abu Aqla Keikel, intentionally targeted civilians in Tayba
village, killing at least 26 civilians, including a child. The attack
took place in the context of a SAF offensive to retake Gezira state, on
January 10, 2025. The fighters also looted property, burned homes, and
terrorized residents, forcing many to flee.
READ MORE
Picture of graves dug by residents of Tayba where the victims of the
Sudan Shield Forces were buried after the attack on January 10. The
picture was taken/shared by a resident of Tayba and geolocated by
Human Rights Watch in Tayba. © 2025 Private
2
Habila, Fayu, and Dibeibat, South Kordofan state: The
RSF fighters and allied militias, beginning in September 2023, committed
widespread sexual violence against dozens of predominantly Nuba women
and girls, including in the context of sexual slavery. The abuses were
part of a broader attack against Nuba communities during fighting in
South Kordofan state. Such acts of sexual violence, including sexual
slavery, constitute war crimes and may constitute crimes against
humanity. READ MORE
RSF fighters took 18-year-old “Hania” from her home in Fayu, South
Kordofan when she was three months pregnant. They held her at a
military base and repeatedly raped her for three months before she
escaped. © 2024 Human Rights Watch
3
Habila and Fayu, South Kordofan: The RSF and allied
Arab militias carried out numerous abuses in South Kordofan including
killings, rapes, and abductions of ethnic Nuba residents, as well as the
looting and destruction of homes from December 2023 to March 2024 during
fighting involving the RSF, SAF and the Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement–North, an armed group.
READ MORE
Screenshot of a video filmed by men wearing RSF uniforms that Human
Rights Watch geolocated to the village of Tungul, close to Habila,
South Kordofan, Sudan. Houses on fire can be seen along the road. The
video was recorded sometime between February 11 and 14, 2024
4
Gezira state: The RSF attacked dozens of villages,
killing, injuring, and unlawfully detaining scores of civilians,
following the defection of Abu Aqlaa Keikel and his troops —until then
the RSF’s top commander in Gezira—to the SAF in late October 2024. Local
groups reported widespread rape in the context of these attacks.
READ MORE
People displaced from Gezira state by the Rapid Support Forces seek
shade in New Halfa, Kassala state, Sudan, November 3, 2024. © 2024
REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
5
Khartoum, Gezira, North and West Kordofan states, and Omdurman:
Across the country, the RSF, the SAF, and affiliated fighters and forces,
including Central Reserve Police, a paramilitary force affiliated with the
SAF, have in at least 10 incidents filmed themselves executing, torturing,
and dehumanizing people in their custody, and mutilating bodies.
READ MORE
Still image from a video posted to social media showing Sudanese Armed
Forces soldiers setting the bodies of persons they have apparently
executed, on fire. © User via X, 2024
6
El Fasher, including Abu Shouk camp, North Darfur state:
From April 2024 onward, the RSF, the SAF, and allied joint
forces have carried out unlawful attacks using explosive weapons in
populated areas of El Fasher, North Darfur’s capital, killing hundreds
of civilians and forcing tens of thousands to flee. The RSF burned down
residential areas and at least once deliberately targeted a hospital, a
war crime.
READ MORE
Houses on fire, southwest of Abu Shouk camp. © Darfur Network for
Human Rights, May 2024.
7
Khartoum area: The RSF forces in Khartoum and its
sister cities have committed widespread conflict-related sexual
violence, including gang rape and rape, predominantly of girls and
women, although men were not spared. Conflict related sexual violence is
a war crime and may constitute a crime against humanity. The forces also
committed child and forced marriage. Both the RSF and the SAF have
attacked local responders seeking to respond to the sexual violence
crisis and have targeted healthcare workers and facilities, which are
war crimes. READ MORE
Women walk on an empty street in Khartoum's Jabra neighborhood, on May
28, 2023, as fighting between two rival generals persists. © 2023 AFP
via Getty Images
8
Country wide: Sudan’s conflict has created a
catastrophic hunger crisis, with warring parties deliberately blocking
aid and looting food supplies, leaving millions throughout the country
facing starvation. Both RSF and SAF have also targeted aid workers and
local responders seeking to respond to the crisis. READ MORE
Sudanese women and children who fled the conflict in Geneina, in
Sudan's Darfur region, line up at the water point in Adre, Chad, July
30, 2023. © 2023 Zohra Bensemra/Reuters
9
El Geneina, including its suburb of Ardamata, West Darfur:
Some of the conflict’s worst atrocities in 2023 occurred in El Geneina, West
Darfur, where the RSF and allied militias, including the Tamazuj armed group,
committed crimes against humanity and widespread war crimes in the context
of an ethnic cleansing campaign against the ethnic Massalit and other non-Arab
populations. Fighters executed civilians, attacked fleeing crowds, raped
women and girls, and burned entire neighborhoods, killing at least thousands
of people and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee to neighboring Chad.
The RSF leadership, including in West Darfur, and three commanders from allied
militias were identified as bearing command responsibility. The particular
context of the widespread killings should be further investigated to identify
whether there was genocidal intent in the conduct of the campaign against
the Massalit community. READ MORE READ MORE
Incendiary damage to the Imam al-Kazem school, an IDP gathering site
in El Geneina. © 2023 Roots for Human Rights and Monitoring
Violations
10
El Geneina, West Darfur: Conflict-related sexual
violence has been an inherent part of the RSF and its allies’ campaign
of ethnic cleansing in West Darfur. Between April and June 2023, the RSF
and allied militias raped dozens of Massalit women and girls in El
Geneina and along routes to Chad. Survivors reported gang rapes and
rapes with attackers often targeting them based on their Massalit
ethnicity and/ or their profile within the community.
READ MORE
Three women and a teenaged girl from El Geneina, West Darfur, who
survived rape committed by the Rapid Support Forces and allied
militias between April and June 2023. © 2023 Belkis Wille/Human
Rights Watch
11
Misterei, West Darfur: Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and
allied militias stormed the town of Misterei, West Darfur, in May 2023,
as El Geneina was also under attack. They summarily executed at least 28
ethnic Massalit men and boys and killed and injured dozens of civilians.
The forces looted homes and businesses and burned entire neighborhoods
to the ground. READ MORE
Burned down dwelling in Misterei, Sudan, after the May 28 attack. ©
Private
12
Khartoum, and its sister cities of Omdurman and Bahri, El Fasher,
Nyala, El Geneina (Darfur), El Obeid (North Kordofan):
From the first days of the conflict, the SAF and the RSF used explosive weapons
in densely populated areas, killing and injuring civilians. Shelling and
airstrikes hit homes, hospitals, and markets, destroying critical infrastructure
and worsening the humanitarian crisis. READ MORE
A house hit during fighting in Khartoum, Sudan, April 25, 2023. ©
2023 AP Photo/Marwan Ali
Given the scale of atrocities committed over the last two years, concerted action is needed to ensure:
Protection of Civilians, Including Through the Deployment of a Mission to Protect Civilians
Given the scale of the atrocities across the country, the warring parties’ complete disregard for the basic laws of war, the withdrawal of peacekeeping forces from Darfur before the conflict, and the ongoing aid access restrictions and attacks on local responders, the need for robust actions to protect civilians, including through the deployment of a mission to protect civilians, remains essential.
READ MORE
Respect, Expansion of the Arms Embargo
Warring parties have acquired apparently new foreign-made equipment produced by companies registered in China, Iran, Russia, Serbia, and the UAE —including armed drones, truck-mounted multi-barrel rocket launchers, drone jammers, and anti-tank guided missiles—and used them in regions of Sudan including Darfur, where a UN arms embargo is still in effect. Human Rights Watch documented incidents in which such equipment is being used in apparent unlawful attacks. The United Nations Security Council should ensure compliance with the existing arms embargo, expand its restrictions on the Darfur region to all of Sudan and hold violators to account.
READ MORE
Justice for Ongoing Violations
Impunity for crimes in Sudan has emboldened rights abusers to commit further grave crimes during the current fighting. UN member states, the African Union, and the European Union, should back the International Criminal Court’s ongoing Darfur work and an expansion of its jurisdiction to the entire country, support the establishment of an internationalized justice mechanism for Sudan, and encourage universal jurisdiction cases, which allow other countries to prosecute the world’s worst crimes regardless of where they took place.
READ MORE