‘Our job is only to kill’: how Sudan’s brutal militia carried out a massacre in El Fasher

Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of executions.

The fighters laugh as they ride in the back of a pickup truck, speeding past a row of nine bodies and heading toward Sudan’s setting sun.

“Look at all this work. Look at this genocide,” one shouts.

He smiles as he focuses the camera on him and his fellow fighters, their Rapid Support Forces (RSF) insignia on display: “They will all die like this.”

The men are celebrating a massacre that humanitarian officials fear killed more than 2,000 people in the Sudanese town of el-Fasher last month. On Monday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) said it was investigating whether paramilitaries may have committed “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

El-Fasher was a key target for the RSF paramilitaries. It was the last stronghold in Darfur held by the Sudanese army, with whom the RSF has fought a devastating war since its ruling coalition collapsed in 2023.

More than 150,000 people are estimated to have died in the fighting over the past two years and both sides are accused of a litany of war crimes, many of which were repeated by the RSF after el-Fasher’s fall.

Having kept the city under siege for almost two years, starting in August the RSF moved to consolidate its position and blockade the remaining civilian population.

Satellite images show that troops began building a massive berm – a raised sand barrier – around the perimeter of el-Fasher, sealing off access routes and blocking aid. In early October, the ring completely surrounded the city and a smaller barricade surrounded a neighboring town.

As the siege intensified, 78 people were killed in a FAR attack on a mosque on September 19, while the UN said 53 more were killed in drone and artillery attacks on a displaced persons camp in October.

Videos shared with BBC Verify also suggested that RSF was attempting to impose a blockade of food and essential supplies. In October, images show a man with his hands and feet tied behind his back, hanging upside down from a tree with metal chains. The man who recorded the video accused him of trying to smuggle supplies into the besieged city.

“I swear to God, you will pay for this dog,” he shouted, before demanding the captive beg for his life.

Meanwhile, the RSF advanced towards the city with troops engaged in frantic street-to-street fighting.

At dawn on October 26, the RSF swept through the last army positions and seized the city’s main base, the headquarters of the 6th Infantry Division, as the military retreated.

Soldiers were filmed laughing as they toured the abandoned headquarters carrying a grenade launcher. Later that day, RSF commander Abdul Rahim Dagalo, brother of RSF chief Mohammad ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo, was seen inspecting the base.

The RSF, which emerged from the Janjaweed militia that killed hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur between 2003 and 2005, has long been accused of committing atrocities against non-Arab groups across Sudan. Footage posted online suggested that paramilitary fighters intended to unleash violence against civilians in el-Fasher.

Before the paramilitary takeover of El-Fasher, very little information had emerged from the city for months. But within hours of the army’s collapse, images of atrocities committed by the RSF began to appear online, breaking the silence that had fallen over the city.

One of the most graphic videos to emerge and analyzed by BBC Verify showed the aftermath of a massacre at a university building on the city’s western side, where dozens of bodies were seen strewn across the ground.

An old man dressed in a white robe was sitting alone among the bodies. He turned to watch as a fighter armed with a rifle came down the stairs towards him. Raising his gun, the gunman fired a single shot at the man, who fell to the ground motionless. The fellow soldiers, unfazed by the act, immediately saw another man’s leg trembling among the tangle of bodies.

“Why is this one still alive?” one fighter shouted. “Shoot him.”

Satellite images taken on October 26 appeared to confirm that executions also took place on the streets of El Fasher, according to a report published by the Yale Humanitarian Research Laboratory.

Its analysts highlighted large “clumps” visible in the images, which they said were “consistent with the size range of adult human bodies and not present in previous images.” He also noted “discoloration” that the report said could have been marks caused by human blood.

One witness who spoke to the BBC said he had witnessed “the massacre of many of our relatives: they gathered them in one place and killed them all.”

Another witness recalled seeing a woman being killed after the RSF “shot her in the chest” before throwing her body aside “after taking all her belongings.”

As the main RSF force swept through El Fasher, a separate group of fighters remained on the outskirts of the city, where they participated in the brutal executions of several unarmed captives.

Most of this violence occurred in a location about 8 kilometers (5 miles) away from El-Fasher. Verified videos show dozens of plainclothes bodies, some of which appear to be women, lying in a trench that runs along the periphery of the sand shoulder built by the RSF.

Other clips show scenes of destruction, with raging fires and burned hulls of trucks scattered across the landscape. Videos from the scene also show bodies scattered among the vehicles.

BBC Verify previously identified a key figure in the violence as an RSF commander who goes by the name Abu Lulu online. Two videos show him executing unarmed captives, while a witness told the BBC that he “gave the order to his men to kill several innocent people, including children.”

One video showed an RSF soldier trying to intercede as Abu Lulu prepared to execute a wounded man, while the captive pleaded: “I know you. I called you a few days ago.”

Abu Lulu dismissed the man’s pleas with a wave of his arms and stated, “I will never have mercy. Our job is only to kill.” After aiming his rifle almost casually, the fighter unleashed a storm of bullets that tore through the unarmed man.

Another video shows him killing a group of nine unarmed captives. Images that emerged days later revealed that the bodies were left where they had fallen, still lined up execution-style and lying on the dusty ground of Darfur.

Many of those involved in the killings wore RSF insignia, including the group that later celebrated the massacre as a “genocide.”

In the days following the massacre, RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo admitted that his troops had committed “violations” and said the incidents would be investigated. A senior UN official said last week that the RSF had reported that it had arrested some suspects within its ranks.

Among those detained was Abu Lulu after BBC Verify published a report documenting his murders. Carefully choreographed and edited footage posted on RSF’s official Telegram account shows him being led to a prison cell on the outskirts of el-Fasher.

The Yale analysts also accused RSF of “conducting a cleanup of its alleged mass atrocities.” A report published on November 4 noted that satellite images show the removal “of objects consistent with corpses from a location north of the RSF berm” and identified graves near the El Fasher children’s hospital.

BBC Verify measured the white objects seen in the hospital courtyard on October 30 to be between 1.6 and 2m in length. This is similar to the height of an adult human and consistent with a body in a shroud commonly seen in Sudan.

Meanwhile, RSF and affiliated social media accounts began seeking to reframe the narrative.

Some users shared posts showing their fighters delivering aid to civilians, while the paramilitary’s media office shared several clips purporting to show the humane treatment of army prisoners of war.

Despite the social media campaign deployed by RSF, its actions in El Fasher have sparked global outrage.

BBC Verify approached RSF and offered it the opportunity to respond to the allegations contained in this investigation. The group did not respond.

Additional reporting by Kevin Nguyen, Kumar Malhotra, Richard Irvine-Brown, Alex Murray, Barbara Metzler, Lamees Altalebi, and Ahmed Nour. Graphics by Jess Carr and Mesut Ersoz.