Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said Thursday that it had arrested several fighters suspected of committing atrocities during the capture of El Fasher, the last army stronghold in North Darfur, including a senior commander filmed executing dozens of civilians. The announcement came after gruesome videos and witness accounts of a massacre sparked global shock.
Among those detained is Brig. Gen. al-Fateh Abdullah Idris ("Abu Lulu"), who appeared in multiple videos, some of which he posted himself, showing him killing at least dozens of civilians and bragging that he had killed more than 2,000 people.
In one video, he is seen shooting a line of kneeling men one by one. In another, he stands with his rifle among dozens of civilian corpses. In one clip, he tells a group of 10 men, "Victory or death, that's our business," before shooting them all. In another, when a soldier urges him to spare a captive, Abu Lulu replies, "By God, I won't leave him. Our job is only to kill," and fires his weapon.
The RSF released a video Thursday showing Abu Lulu handcuffed, being led from a vehicle into what it said was a prison cell in northern Darfur. The militia claimed investigations had begun and said it was committed to "the law, codes of conduct, and military discipline during wartime."
El Fasher fell to the RSF on Sunday after an 18-month siege. According to preliminary UN figures, about 1,850 people were killed in the city and surrounding areas following the takeover. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization's director general reported that 460 patients and staff were killed at the Saudi Maternity Hospital. Video from the site showed a man being executed and bodies strewn across the premises.
Roughly 260,000 people were in El Fasher when it fell, but Reuters reported that only about 62,000 survivors have been identified among those who fled, with several thousand more reaching the nearby town of Tawila.
Survivors who made it to Tawila described RSF fighters going house to house, beating and shooting residents. Men were separated from women and disappeared, and roads were littered with corpses.
Satellite images analyzed by Yale University experts show evidence of mass executions near an earthen wall built by the RSF around the city that became a "killing box." Earlier images revealed large pools of blood near the city.
A senior RSF commander downplayed the reports in comments to Reuters, calling them "media exaggeration" by the army and its allies "to cover up their defeat." He said only soldiers disguised as civilians had been detained for questioning and denied that mass killings had taken place, claims contradicted by extensive video evidence.
The RSF evolved from the Arab Janjaweed militias responsible for genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s, when about 300,000 people were killed.
Sudan's army is backed by Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, while the United Arab Emirates is seen as a key supporter of the RSF. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, US intelligence assessments indicate that the UAE has increased arms shipments to the RSF since the spring, including Chinese-made attack drones, with smuggling routes running through Somalia and Libya. The UAE has consistently denied the accusations and on Thursday announced $100 million in humanitarian aid to Sudan amid the controversy.
The civil war in Sudan began in April 2023 as a power struggle between the army, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, known as "Hemedti." The two forces had shared power after the 2019 ouster of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir, but their rivalry escalated into full-scale war.
At least tens of thousands have been killed since the fighting began, more than 14 million people have been displaced, and the UN describes the situation as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
