![Bodies of victims of the North Darfur Mosque attack. [Photo screengrab]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-19-at-8.49.28-PM.png?quality=80&ssl=1)
The attack, which occurred around 4:30 a.m. local time, caused the al-Safia Mosque to collapse, leaving worshippers buried under rubble. Witnesses described a scene of devastation as rescue efforts were hampered by the destruction.
The bombing took place in the Safiya neighborhood, just north of the city’s airport. The El Fasher Resistance Committees stated that the death toll was at least 75, with bodies left unburied due to a severe shortage of burial shrouds amid the ongoing siege of the city.
The Sudans Post geolocated video footage filmed by committee members showing corpses being pulled from the debris of the collapsed structure, confirming the site of the strike.
The attack comes as the RSF push deeper into El Fasher, engaging in street-by-street combat with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and allied rebel groups. These forces are defending the SAF’s 6th Infantry Division headquarters, the last remaining army division in Darfur. The RSF has already seized control of the rest of the region.
The mosque bombing appears to be a retaliatory strike following heavy fighting on Thursday at a former UNAMID base northwest of the city. SAF and allied forces reportedly repelled a major RSF assault in that clash, with several senior RSF commanders reported killed.
El Fasher has become a sanctuary for Darfuris displaced by the fighting, with its population composed largely of families from African tribes. The massacre at al-Safia Mosque has fueled fears that the RSF is seeking not only military victory but also to carry out ethnic cleansing by targeting the city’s civilian population.
The Coordination of El Fasher Resistance Committees, which blamed the RSF for the attack, said in a statement, “At a sorrowful, tear-filled dawn, moments of calm and devotion turned into a scene of mass slaughter after a strategic convoy of the Rapid Support Militia struck civilians while they were performing the dawn prayer.”
The committee also accused the central government and Darfur’s former rebel leaders of abandoning the city.
Minni Arko Minnawi, governor of Darfur and a leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement, condemned the strike as a war crime. In a post on X, he stated that more than 60 civilians were killed and held the RSF responsible, condemning “the continued genocide and the unjustified international silence.”
The Mashad Human Rights Observatory also condemned the bombing, calling it “terrorism against humanity.”
The group reported that more than 84 civilians, including 11 children, were killed. The observatory accused regional and international powers of complicity through their silence and called for the RSF to be formally designated a terrorist organization.
