The report, titled “A war of Atrocities”, details how both sides launched systematic attacks on civilians and deliberately destroyed vital infrastructure, markets, hospitals, water networks, food supplies, and displacement camps. In North Darfur’s capital El Fasher, where the city has been under siege for months, RSF and allied militias committed grave abuses including killings, torture, rape, sexual violence, forced displacement, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war.
“Our findings leave no room for doubt: civilians are paying the highest price in this war,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the Fact-Finding Mission. “Both sides have deliberately targeted civilians through attacks, summary executions, arbitrary detention, torture, and inhuman treatment in detention facilities, including denial of food, sanitation, and medical care. These are not accidental tragedies but deliberate strategies amounting to war crimes. The RSF has further committed crimes against humanity, including large-scale killings, sexual and gender-based violence, looting, and the destruction of livelihoods—at times rising to persecution and extermination.”
While much of the focus has been on RSF brutality, the mission also found evidence of abuses by the SAF. These included killings, arbitrary detention, and torture, often targeting civilians based on ethnicity or political affiliation.
Hundreds of civilians, including women and children from non-Arab groups such as the Zaghawa, Fur, and Masalit, were killed by RSF forces around El Fasher, according to the investigation. In Sudan’s central Gezira state, meanwhile, the SAF and allied groups were accused of violently targeting residents of the Kanabi farming communities, leaving dozens dead and displacing the majority of the population.
The human toll has been staggering. More than 12 million people have been forced to flee their homes, while nearly half of Sudan’s population now faces acute food insecurity. The mission documented the deaths of over 84 humanitarian workers between April 2023 and April 2025, with many more subjected to arrest, assault, and harassment. Aid convoys have also been repeatedly attacked.
Testimonies from survivors described RSF-run detention facilities as “Slaughterhouses,” where detainees endured torture, executions, sexual enslavement, and forced marriage of women and girls, some as young as 12.
“Behind every documented story is a shattered family, a displaced community, a survivor of unimaginable violence,” said Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, an expert Member of the Fact-Finding Mission. “We have interviewed numerous civilians who have endured extreme trauma and suffered or witnessed killings, starvation, sexual violence, torture, and the destruction of essential services. The cycle of impunity has emboldened perpetrators for decades. Victims — especially women and children, who bear the greatest burden — deserve justice and reparations.”
The report calls for urgent international measures, including a global arms embargo, support for the International Criminal Court, the creation of an independent judicial mechanism for Sudan, and sanctions on those responsible for the crimes.
“Our report not only exposes atrocities, it also lays out a roadmap for justice,” said expert Member Mona Rishmawi. “The international community must act now to enforce the arms embargo, support justice by backing the International Criminal Court, establish an independent judicial mechanism for Sudan, use universal jurisdiction to hold perpetrators accountable, and ensure that those orchestrating atrocities face consequences, including targeted sanctions,”
The Human Rights Council established the mission in October 2023 and extended its mandate until October 2025. Dozens of civil society organizations, including Human Rights Watch, had pressed the Council to prolong the mission’s work for at least two more years, warning that evidence-gathering and accountability efforts must continue as the conflict enters its third year.
The war, which erupted between the SAF and RSF in April 2023, has killed tens of thousands, destroyed Sudan’s health system, and triggered the world’s largest displacement crisis, while hospitals, displacement camps, and humanitarian lifelines remain under attack.
