Sudan: EU condemns RSF 'brutality' in takeover of El-Fasher

The European Union on Wednesday condemned Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after the group captured the strategic city of El-Fasher in North Darfur.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in a statement that civilians had been targeted based on ethnicity, underscoring the "brutality" of the RSF.

What has the EU said about Darfur?

The statement, co-signed by European Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Commissioner Hadja Lahbib, urged the RSF to protect civilians, aid workers and journalists, and to allow humanitarian access to people in need.

"Humanitarian organisations must be granted immediate, safe and unconditional access to all those in need," the statement read. "Civilians wishing to leave the city must be allowed to do so safely."

After an 18-month siege marked by starvation and heavy bombardment, the RSF — descended from the Janjaweed militias accused of genocide two decades ago — seized the city at the weekend, prompting reports of ethnic massacres.

On Tuesday, African Union Commission Chairman Mahmoud Ali Youssouf took to X to express "deep concern" over the escalating violence and reported atrocities.

In neighboring North Kordofan, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reported that five Sudanese Red Crescent volunteers had been killed in Bara after the RSF took control of the town. Three others remain missing.

Analysts say Sudan is effectively split along an east-west axis, with the RSF controlling most of Darfur and the army entrenched around the Nile and Red Sea regions. The UN estimates more than 30 million people in Sudan urgently need humanitarian assistance — one of the largest displacement and hunger crises in the world.

Satellite imagery shows signs of atrocities

Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab has reported that the RSF carried out mass killings after seizing the city of El-Fasher.

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HUMAN SECURITY EMERGENC
El-Fasher has fallen to RSF. HRL finds evidence of mass killings including door-to-door clearance operations and objects consistent with reported bodies on berm entrapping El-Fasher.#KeepEyesOnSudan

@AirbusSpace @Maxarhttps://t.co/1HApllgNL5 pic.twitter.com/yrCbM5HxeP

— Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at YSPH (@HRL_YaleSPH) October 27, 2025 >

The study, released Tuesday, used satellite imagery to document what the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab described as "alleged mass killings" committed by RSF fighters following their takeover of the city.

Caitlin Howarth, director of conflict analytics at the lab, told DW that the ethnic cleansing came as no surprise based on the group's past actions in the Darfur region. 

She described this as "the culmination of what we have been telling the world was going to be a genocidal campaign by the RSF."

The lab's Nathaniel Raymond warned of a "Rwanda-level mass extermination of people who are trapped inside" the city.

What does Sudan's expulsion of World Food Programme leaders mean?

The UN's World Food Programme reported that the military government had ordered the WFP's two most senior officials to leave Sudan within 72 hours. In a statement from Rome, the agency said its country director Laurent Bukera and emergency coordinator Samantha Katraj were declared persona non grata without explanation.

"The decision forces WFP to implement unplanned leadership changes, jeopardising operations that support millions of vulnerable Sudanese facing extreme hunger, malnutrition, and even starvation," the agency said.

The expulsions came just days after El-Fasher fell to the RSF, further isolating humanitarian agencies as famine and displacement spread.