Our Purpose Is Exclusively Executing' - The Way Sudan's Ruthless Fighting Force Conducted a Mass Killing

Alert: This Report Contains Explicit Accounts of Killings.

Militiamen smirk as they move on the bed of a utility vehicle, speeding by a row of multiple dead bodies and driving facing the setting Sudanese sunset.

"Observe all this effort. See this instance of ethnic cleansing," a combatant cheers.

He smiles as he directs the camera on his person and his fellow combatants, their RSF badges visible: "The victims will all die like this."

The men are rejoicing over a massacre that aid workers believe resulted in the deaths of in excess of two thousand people in the African metropolis of el-Fasher during October.

A Community Severed from the Outside

Having held the city under blockade for approximately two years, from the summer the militia moved to reinforce its control and prevent access for the remaining inhabitants.

Space-based imagery demonstrate that forces commenced to erect a immense earth barrier - a elevated dirt embankment - surrounding the edges of al-Fashir, closing roads and preventing aid.

While the blockade escalated, seventy-eight individuals were murdered in an paramilitary strike on a religious building on mid-September, while the United Nations said fifty-three further were killed in aerial and cannon attacks on a refugee settlement in the autumn.

Explicit Video Depicts Defenseless Civilians Executed

By sunrise on October 26th the paramilitary force defeated the final military defenses and captured the central headquarters in the urban area, the main facility of the Army Division, as the government forces retreated.

Perhaps the most horrific videos to surface and analysed showed the results of a atrocity at a university building on the western of the community, where dozens dead bodies were seen spread over the area.

A senior person clad in a traditional garment remained alone surrounded by the bodies. The man turned to glance as a militiaman equipped with a firearm walked along the staircase towards him. Raising his rifle, the fighter released a single round at the victim, who collapsed to the floor motionless.

"Why is this one yet alive," one fighter cried. "Shoot this one."

Orbital photography recorded on late October indicated to substantiate that killings were additionally conducted on the roads of el-Fasher, according to a study issued by the university analysis team.

A key observer who spoke said he had observed "numerous of our kin being executed - these individuals were assembled in a single location and each one killed."

Militia Commanders Try to Implement Damage Control

In the days that came after the atrocity, militia chief acknowledged that his forces had carried out "wrongdoings" and said the events would be examined.

Among those detained was after a report recording his killings. Meticulously orchestrated and modified footage shared on the militia's formal messaging account reveal the commander being led into a detention area at a prison on the perimeter of the city.

Meanwhile, the militia and affiliated digital channels started trying to reshape the account.

Content showing its militiamen providing supplies to civilians were circulated by some accounts, while the force's public relations unit published several recordings purporting to display the compassionate handling of government prisoners of war.

In spite of the digital campaign being employed by the RSF, their conduct in el-Fasher have sparked international condemnation.

Ethan Pineda
Ethan Pineda

A Berlin-based travel writer and cultural enthusiast with over a decade of experience exploring Europe's vibrant cities and countryside.