In Sudan, warnings of mass atrocities kept coming until they became easier to predict than the international action meant to stop them.
Development Diaries reports that Amnesty International has accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of committing crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during its assault on el-Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur, warning that the documented evidence could also amount to genocide.
The report, released in July 2026, concluded that RSF fighters killed, tortured, raped, injured and arbitrarily detained civilians in and around el-Fasher between early 2024 and October 2025 after an 18-month siege that deliberately cut off food, medicine and humanitarian assistance.
For much of that siege, residents survived on ambaz, a peanut-oil by-product normally used as animal feed, because almost every route into the city had been blocked. By the time RSF forces entered el-Fasher, starvation had already become another weapon of war.
Amnesty International says civilians were targeted because of their ethnic identity, while its secretary general described the assault as a war on civilians rather than a conventional military campaign.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence from the United Nations and other international organisations documenting the worsening conflict, with UN figures showing that drone strikes killed more than 1,000 civilians during the first five months of 2026 alone, while fighting across Sudan has displaced about 13 million people and killed tens of thousands since the war began.
Humanitarian organisations, UN officials and human rights monitors repeatedly warned that the siege of el-Fasher was creating conditions for mass atrocities, but the international response never matched the scale of the danger.
That failure now sits beside the crimes themselves because protecting civilians is not supposed to begin after evidence has been collected.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF remain responsible for protecting civilians under international humanitarian law, while the UN Security Council, the African Union and the International Criminal Court all have responsibilities for preventing mass atrocities and ensuring accountability when they occur.
International law prohibits genocide, crimes against humanity and attacks deliberately directed against civilians, while Sudan is also bound by regional human rights obligations protecting the dignity, safety and rights of women and children during armed conflict.
Women and girls have paid one of the highest prices, as Amnesty International documented rape, gang rape, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence used to terrorise communities, while survivors described attacks that deliberately targeted their identity as well as their bodies.
Children face another lasting consequence, with months of deliberate starvation having exposed thousands to severe malnutrition, interrupting education, destroying healthcare access and creating damage that many will carry long after the fighting ends.
Citizens should continue to amplify verified evidence from survivors and humanitarian organisations, reject misinformation that obscures documented abuses and urge their governments to support stronger international action to protect civilians.
The UN Security Council and the African Union should move beyond repeated statements by supporting a properly resourced civilian-protection mission, while the International Criminal Court should accelerate investigations into atrocities committed in and around el-Fasher so that those responsible are brought to justice.
