Sudan Conflict Sees 2 Million Return to Khartoum While UN Confirms RSF Genocide Evidence in el-Fasher

In the Sudan conflict, at least 2 million of the 5 million people who fled Khartoum have returned home while life slowly resumes in several towns after a military victory against the Rapid Support Forces. [1]

Resumption of Life in Khartoum After SAF Victory

At least 2 million of the 5 million Sudanese who fled their homes in the capital, Khartoum, have returned home. [1] Life is slowly resuming in several other towns just like the city, after a military victory against the Rapid Support Forces. [1] Khartoum's city centre, once home to bustling markets, towering businesses and wealthy districts, remains a ghost town, a mass grave and a minefield. [1] Power is constantly out as water shortage becoming the norm. [1] But despite decimated infrastructure, those coming back were overwhelmed by the thought of seeing their city for the first time in years. [1] But although the authorities promised a quick restoration of normal life after their military victory, power is still mostly out, buildings remain damaged and workers are going unpaid. [1] Some say they have come back only as a last resort, fleeing a crackdown on refugees in neighbouring Egypt. [1] Fewer than 80,000 people have come back to central Khartoum, according to the United Nations. [1] A quick drive through downtown Khartoum leaves little to the imagination. [1] The battles went street by street, first in April 2023 when the paramilitaries swept through town, and again last year when the army and allied fighters forced their way back. [1]

Government Position on US Peace Proposal

Sudan’s Burhan stated that Khartoum will reject any proposal that fails to ensure security and stability. [2] Burhan's remarks came after Sudan submitted response to US proposal for 90-day humanitarian truce followed by permanent ceasefire talks, civilian-led transition. [2] Sudan ties acceptance of US peace roadmap to RSF withdrawal from all cities. [4] Government document proposes 90-day humanitarian truce, UN-monitored RSF pullout before indirect ceasefire talks, 2 senior Sudanese officials tell Anadolu. [4]

Sudanese return to damaged buildings and streets in central Khartoum after fleeing the conflict. — Source: anadolu

RSF Assault and Abuses in West Darfur

A Sudanese group accused the RSF of killings and abuses after the paramilitary launched a large-scale assault on Kulbus in West Darfur. [3] RSF launched large-scale assault on Kulbus with sizeable force at dawn Friday, local sources tell Anadolu. [3]

Scale of the Humanitarian Crisis in the Sudan Conflict

The war, largely backed by foreign powers, has killed thousands over the past three years, displaced more than 13 million, and driven more than 19.5 million people to the brink of famine, prompting what the UN and European Union have described as the world's largest humanitarian and displacement crisis. [5]

Sudanese group accuses RSF of killings and abuses in West Darfur town. — Source: anadolu

UN Evidence of Genocide in el-Fasher

UN Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan expanded its evidence to 333 survivor interviews from el-Fasher, reaffirming that RSF actions bore the hallmarks of genocide against non-Arab communities through killing, serious harm, and conditions calculated to destroy the group, with genocidal intent inferred from scale, ethnic language and selective targeting. [5] The United Nations Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan on Wednesday released a new tranche of survivor testimony from the fall of Darfur's el-Fasher, in evidence corroborating a recent report accusing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of committing genocide against non-Arab communities. [5] In a conference room paper, the mission said its evidence base had grown to 333 survivor interviews, up from 320 in February, and that the new material "reaffirmed" its conclusion that the RSF’s October takeover of the North Darfur capital "bore the hallmarks of genocide". [5] The FFMS is an independent investigative mechanism established by the UN Human Rights Council to document violations of international human rights and humanitarian law committed during Sudan's war, which broke out between the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces in April 2023. [5] The mission this week reaffirmed that three of the underlying acts of genocide were "overwhelmingly present" in and around el-Fasher during the RSF operations: killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy the group. [5] It again found that genocidal intent could be inferred from the scale of the killing, the ethnically charged language used by commanders and fighters, and the pattern of sparing Arab civilians while killing, raping or detaining non-Arabs. [5] The mission added that it was now examining whether the pattern of mass rape, forced pregnancy and denial of reproductive healthcare could amount to a fourth genocidal act, measures "intended to prevent births within the group" under Article II(d) of the Genocide Convention. [5] One previously undisclosed account described RSF fighters storming a takiya on 26 October, killing men, women and children inside. [5] As the survivor tried to flee with her husband, fighters raped her; when the husband tried to intervene, one of them slit his throat with a knife, killing him on the spot. [5] Investigators also learned that RSF fighters raped women at the El Saudi Hospital after storming its wards and killing the wounded sheltering there. [5] In Shagra, a witness described RSF fighters halting a group of civilians trying to escape and raping between 15 and 20 women and girls, some as young as 13; one woman in her seventies later died from her injuries. [5] On the road to Tawila, one survivor recounted being intercepted along with a group of women by RSF fighters who separated out several to rape while forcing the rest to watch, telling them: "Sit here until we 'marry' your sister." [5] Another new account detailed women and girls specifically spared or targeted by ethnicity: fighters who accepted a woman's claim to belong to the Fallati tribe told her "you are my cousin" and let her go; another, who said she was from the Masri neighbourhood, was released with the same words after a fighter had already begun to assault her. [5] Survivors also reported new instances of rape by insertion of a sharp object that led to the death of at least one victim, and one witness recalled perpetrators laughing during an assault. [5] The mission also documented killings of women who resisted rape or tried to protect relatives. [5] In one, a mother was shot dead on the road to Tawila after trying to stop fighters taking her daughters. [5] In another, two young women held with a group of abducted women and girls were killed immediately after resisting an attempted rape. [5] A witness described watching RSF fighters tie the hands of three girls she knew, force them into a vehicle and drive off, one of several new abduction accounts the mission said it was treating as a pattern that could amount to enforced disappearance. [5] New quotes attributed to RSF fighters included "The Rapid Support Forces are above everything" and "Any Zaghawa we will capture will not survive the night," which investigators said reinforced their finding that ethnicity was "a primary criterion" behind the killings and rapes. [5] The mission said it had learned that thousands of people detained while fleeing el-Fasher were first held in the city itself in schools, the El Saudi Hospital and former government buildings, before being transferred toward the end of 2025 to Nyala, where they were placed in the city's main prison, known as Daqris, which was already overcrowded with detainees captured elsewhere in Sudan. [5] Thousands remained there, held without legal process, without access to lawyers, and without family visits; humanitarian workers who sought access to detention sites had themselves been detained. [5] Former government employees, particularly teachers and doctors, were separated from other captives at elevated risk and, in many cases, not seen again. [5] At a former children's hospital in el-Fasher used as a detention and execution site, the mission reported that detainees forced to drink contaminated water contracted cholera, resulting in multiple deaths in custody. [5]

Foreign Complicity and Calls to Halt Support

The mission additionally set out the potential complicity of states that continued to arm or otherwise support the RSF. [5] It said states that provided military, financial, logistical or intelligence support despite knowledge of a serious risk of genocide could be found in breach of their duty to prevent genocide under Article I of the Genocide Convention, and in some circumstances could face questions of complicity under Article III(e). [5] Though it denies the charges, there is widespread evidence, including extensive reporting by Middle East Eye, linking the United Arab Emirates with the supply of arms and other goods to the RSF. [5] The mission noted that Sudan had already tried to bring a genocide case against the UAE at the International Court of Justice, but the proceedings did not go forward because the UAE had entered a reservation to Article IX of the Genocide Convention excluding the court's jurisdiction over such disputes. [5] However, the mission pointed out that other states supplying the RSF had not necessarily made that reservation, leaving them potentially exposed to similar claims. [5] Rights groups have recently filed two communications with the International Criminal Court requesting it to investigate the role of foreign actors, particularly senior officials from the UAE, for aiding and abetting RSF atrocities. [5] "The obligation to prevent arises at the instant a State learns of, or should normally have learned of, the existence of a serious risk that genocide may be committed," the paper said. [5] "It is an obligation of conduct rather than result, requiring States to employ all means reasonably available to them, within their capacity to influence the relevant actors, to prevent the commission of genocide." [5] It called for an immediate halt to any weapons, ammunition or logistical support reaching the RSF and its allies in violation of the existing arms embargo. [5] Investigators said they had identified foreign fighters among the RSF ranks who took part in acts of sexual violence, alongside Sudanese fighters identified by their distinctive sandy-coloured uniforms. [5]

What to watch next: The mission is examining whether mass rape, forced pregnancy and denial of reproductive healthcare constitute a fourth genocidal act, and highlighted potential complicity of states arming the RSF despite knowledge of genocide risk.