RSF Massacres Left Sudanese City ‘A Slaughterhouse,’ Satellite Images Show

London-UK, December 8, 2025

The scale of the atrocities committed by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the Sudanese city of El Fasher has been laid bare by harrowing new satellite imagery.

The images, analysed by human rights watchdogs, suggest the city has been turned into a “massive crime scene” and a “slaughterhouse,”with the RSF now allegedly engaged in a systematic effort to destroy evidence of massacres committed against the civilian population.

This grim development comes six weeks after the RSF seized the capital of North Darfur state, following a bloody 18-month siege.

Analysis from the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab reveals once-bustling marketplaces and civilian areas are now eerily desolate.

More disturbingly, the imagery indicates a network of newly dug incineration and burial pits near key locations, suggesting the large-scale disposal of bodies.

Experts fear these pits are being used to destroy evidence of ethnically targeted killings carried out by the RSF.

With as many as 150,000 residents still unaccounted for since the city fell, the evidence points toward a humanitarian and human rights disaster of staggering proportions, compounding the existing famine gripping the region.

Key Headline Points

• Massive Crime Scene: Satellite imagery shows the Sudanese city of El Fasher, seized by the RSF, is now being treated as a “massive crime scene” with large piles of bodies reportedly awaiting disposal.

• Evidence Destruction: New imagery reveals the establishment of incineration and burial pits, strongly suggesting a systematic effort by the RSF to destroy evidence of large-scale, ethnically targeted massacres.

• Unaccounted Civilians: Approximately 150,000 residents of the city, a former population centre of 1.5 million, remain unaccounted for, sparking fears for their fate.

• Ethnic Targeting: Accounts from survivors and sources indicate the massacres were “systematically carried out on the basis of ethnic motives” against non-Arab groups in the city.

• Humanitarian Crisis: The lack of access means aid has been severely restricted, leading to “staggering” levels of malnutrition among those who managed to escape.

The Fall of El Fasher

El Fasher, a critical historical and administrative centre, was the last major stronghold of the regular Sudanese army in Darfur. Its fall to the RSF in late October, after a prolonged siege, marked a decisive military victory for the paramilitary group and provided them with nearly full control over the Darfur region.

The aftermath has been one of unimaginable horror. Reports from survivors indicate that the RSF went “house to house, beating and shooting people, including women and children,” with the violence specifically focused on non-Arab ethnic groups.

This targeting has led to warnings from international bodies that the RSF is engaging in actions that may constitute genocide, recalling the violence that devastated Darfur two decades ago.

The new satellite analysis provides chilling visual confirmation of the post-massacre cover-up.

The Yale Humanitarian Research Lab reported that aerial photos show vast empty spaces where markets once flourished, and most distressingly, large, freshly disturbed areas near a mosque and a former children’s hospital.

Nathaniel Raymond, the lab’s director, described the city as “eerie” and compared it to a “slaughterhouse,” suggesting a methodical effort to erase the traces of the killings.

With UN war crimes investigators unable to access the sealed-off city, the satellite evidence is proving essential in documenting the extent of the atrocities.

A Deepening Humanitarian Catastrophe

Beyond the massacres, the humanitarian situation in El Fasher and the surrounding region is catastrophic.

The conflict has internally displaced over 12 million people across Sudan since April 2023, and the fighting has decimated agricultural output and severely restricted the movement of aid.

The World Food Programme (WFP) and other aid agencies report that regions around Darfur are now facing famine. For those who remain inside the city, or who have fled into remote areas, food and medical assistance is virtually non-existent.

International experts have declared the situation to be in a state of famine, with children and the elderly most at risk.

The international community’s response has been slow and disjointed. Despite the US State Department determining nearly a year ago that the RSF was committing genocide, the international pressure has failed to halt the violence or compel the RSF to allow humanitarian access.

Experts argue that the world’s focus has been too diverted by other conflicts, allowing the atrocities in Sudan to continue largely unabated and ignored.

The new satellite evidence serves as a gruesome and undeniable indictment of the failure of global intervention to protect the people of El Fasher from mass, ethnically motivated violence.