As Darfur's last city falls, fears grow 'there will be no one left to save'

Updated October 29, 2025 at 1:57 PM MDT

After a more than 500-day siege, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — the paramilitary group at war with Sudan's army — have taken control of el-Fasher, and by extension, the entire region of Darfur. The fall of the city marks a turning point in Sudan's brutal war and has sparked warnings of a repeat of the Darfur genocide two decades ago.

The United Nations estimates around 200,000 civilians were trapped in el-Fasher when the army withdrew. Advocacy groups say many are now being systematically killed.

Among the dead is Muhammad Khamis Duda, a spokesperson for the Zamzam displacement camp near el-Fasher, who documented the siege for months, sending voice messages to international media until his death. He survived an attack on the camp by the RSF in April where they slaughtered hundreds. But still he refused to leave, determined to stay and help others.

"The situation in el-Fasher right now is very horrible," Duda said in one of his final messages to NPR before his death.

RSF tighten its grip on Darfur

The RSF and allied Arab militias — descended from the notorious Janjaweed — now control all of Darfur, a vast western region already scarred by decades of ethnic violence.

Videos circulating online, which NPR has not independently verified, appear to show RSF fighters killing hospital patients and civilians while shouting racial slurs.

Sudanese analyst Kholood Khair says the violence is not just a continuation of the civil war — but of genocide.

"The genocide we saw twenty years ago is actually still continuing," she said.

Evidence of mass killing from space

Satellite imagery reviewed by Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab shows mass graves and signs of house-to-house killings in el-Fasher.

Lab director Nathaniel Raymond says his team has been tracking the atrocities in real time.

"Every day, my team and I watch el-Fasher's destruction from space. No one can say they didn't know."

The RSF has been accused of war crimes throughout Sudan's two-year conflict and is believed to be backed by the United Arab Emirates — a key U.S. ally — though the UAE denies any involvement.

Emi Mahmoud, a Sudanese-American advocate and strategic director for the Internally Displaced Persons Humanitarian Network, who is from Darfur herself, says the world's inaction is catastrophic.

"This is our Srebrenica moment. Just like the siege of Sarajevo, which was happening in full view of the world, el-Fasher is being destroyed while everyone watches. If no one intervenes, there will be no one left to save," Mahmoud told NPR's Morning Edition.

A humanitarian collapse unfolds

The U.N.'s International Organization for Migration says more than 26,000 people have fled el-Fasher since it fell over the weekend. Many are arriving at the nearby village of Tawila, where mothers with infants, malnourished children and the elderly are seeking aid.

Doctors Without Borders says it has treated hundreds of injured civilians, while aid workers face "extraordinary danger" to reach those in need.

Inside el-Fasher, videos posted by the RSF show fighters carrying out executions, while advocacy groups warn of massacres across the city. The U.N. says 1,350 people were killed there even before the city's fall earlier this month.

The World Health Organization says more than 460 patients and their companions were killed at the Saudi Maternity Hospital in el-Fasher. The WHO said it was "appalled" and reminded all parties that patients and health workers are protected under international law.

What comes next

The war over who controls the resource-rich nation at the crossroads of the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and the Red Sea has killed tens of thousands. It has also displaced 14 million people. Both sides in the conflict have been accused of committing atrocities.

With el-Fasher under RSF control, analysts warn the group is now positioned to dominate one-third of Sudan, strengthening its claim to power and deepening the country's fragmentation.

The taking of el-Fasher will only give it more leverage, says Cameron Hudson, former special envoy to Sudan and an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

"This victory for the RSF allows it to consolidate total control over one third of the country, all of Darfur. That will bolster its claims that it's a government, and give it greater leverage at the negotiating table."

In the meantime, the RSF appears intent on pursuing a scorched earth policy in el-Fasher, with the real extent of the atrocities likely only to become clear in the weeks ahead.  

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