RSF abuses in Sudan documented by covert Darfur rights teams
Sudan’s human rights commission says secret teams are gathering evidence of killings, sexual violence and detentions in RSF-held Darfur.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
4 min read
Covert monitors working with Sudan’s National Commission for Human Rights are documenting alleged RSF abuses in Sudan’s Darfur region, according to the commission’s Darfur director. Their work could become evidence in future prosecutions over killings, sexual violence and mass detention in areas held by the Rapid Support Forces.
Rahmatullah Mohammedin Abakar told Al Jazeera that the commission’s teams operate secretly because opposition activity is not tolerated in RSF-controlled territory. He said monitors use small mobile phones and secure communications with local networks to collect information under severe security pressure.
The RSF, a paramilitary force, has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces since 2023. It controls large parts of Darfur and has been accused by Sudanese and international rights bodies of atrocities against civilians; the group has previously denied targeting civilians and said it would hold violators in its ranks accountable.
What has the NCHR documented in Darfur?
Abakar said the commission has recorded what he described as a systematic pattern of violence against civilians on ethnic grounds in every city under RSF control. He accused the RSF of mass executions that he said amount to genocide, and said the NCHR has credible reports of mass graves in el-Geneina and el-Fasher, which the RSF took in 2023 and 2025.
The commission has also documented nearly 4,000 cases of sexual violence across Darfur, Abakar said. He said girls under 18 made up 20 percent of the victims.
Those findings align with a June 2026 report by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which described conflict-related sexual violence in Sudan as unprecedented in brutality and scale.
International probes have reached similar findings
A recent UN fact-finding mission found that the RSF’s violence during and after its siege of el-Fasher amounted to genocide. The mission documented mass killings, gang rape and the deliberate starvation of civilians, and reported survivor accounts of rape in rooms where newly killed civilians, including relatives, were still lying.
Amnesty International has accused the RSF of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in el-Fasher between early 2024 and October 2025. Amnesty said the RSF sharply restricted aid during the siege, contributing to famine conditions that pushed residents to eat animal feed.
How many civilians are reportedly detained?
Abakar said the RSF is holding 1,480 civilians in el-Fasher, including 446 children and 360 women, across several detention sites. In Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, he said about 10,000 detainees are being held in Daqris prison, including 9,000 women.
He called for their immediate release under international rules governing armed conflict, saying detention without trial violates international humanitarian law. He also said monitors cannot easily reach detention centres or alleged violation sites because of RSF control, lack of cooperation from the group and allied militias, and continuing combat.
Sudan’s war, which began in April 2023, has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly 14 million, according to Al Jazeera’s reporting. Abakar said Sudanese army advances in West Darfur have exposed more evidence of abuses in villages along the way, while the RSF has dismissed atrocity claims as “manufactured”.
Why the documentation could matter later
Abdul Nasser Salem, a security and crisis management expert who directs the East Africa programme at the Sweden-based Fox Research Center, told Al Jazeera that the allegations raise serious issues under international humanitarian law. He said the 1949 Geneva Conventions require parties to war to respect the right to life and bar extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary detention and assaults on human dignity.
Salem said attacks on ethnic groups, mass killings, widespread sexual violence and unlawful detention could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. He said the NCHR’s field evidence may be central to any national or international judicial process.
Abakar urged international support and protection for rights teams collecting evidence inside Sudan. Al Jazeera said it sought comment from the RSF on the documented abuses but had not received a response by publication.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.