Satellite images reveal “mass killing is continuing” in Sudan, Yale researchers say

Satellite images suggest that killings are likely continuing in and around El-Fasher in Sudan, Yale researchers said, as Germany’s top diplomat on Saturday described the situation there as “apocalyptic.”

At war with the regular army since April 2023, the Rapid Support Forces seizes El-Fasher on Sunday, pushing the army back from its last stronghold in the western region of Darfur after a crushing 18-month siege.

Since the fall of the city, there have been reports of summary executions, sexual violence, attacks on aid workers, looting and kidnappings, while communications remain largely cut.

El-Fasher survivors who reached the nearby town of Tawila told AFP of massacres, children shot dead before their parents and civilians beaten and robbed as they fled.

Hayat, a mother of five who fled the city, said “young men traveling with us were arrested” along the way by paramilitaries and “we don’t know what happened to them.”

Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab said new satellite images taken Friday showed “no large-scale movement,” giving them reason to believe that much of the population may be “dead, captured or hiding.”

The laboratory identified at least 31 groups of objects corresponding to human bodies between Monday and Friday, in neighborhoods, on university grounds and on military sites.

“The indicators indicating that the massacres are continuing are clearly visible,” the laboratory said.

The laboratory also analyzed satellite images showing RSF vehicles in the Daraja Oula neighborhood over the past few days.

“Yale HRL interprets that the activity visible in satellite images on October 27 and 28 reflected killings and rapid evacuations of people in this neighborhood,” the laboratory writes. “By October 31, 2025, the change in activity could reflect the fact that few people remain alive.”

THE the laboratory previously said that there was “evidence of close combat” in El-Fasher, and that this activity “may be consistent with reports that RSF took prisoners in and around the [army] aerodrome.”

According to the UN, more than 65,000 people have fled El-Fasher, but tens of thousands remain stuck. Around 260,000 people were in the city before the RSF’s final assault.

At a conference in Bahrain on Saturday, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Sudan was “absolutely in an apocalyptic situation, the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world.”

He added that the RSF was “committed to protecting civilians and will be held accountable for these actions.”

“Really horrible”

Speaking at the same event, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper also described the reported abuse as “truly horrific”.

“Atrocities, mass executions, famine and the devastating use of rape as a weapon of war, with women and children bearing the brunt of the greatest humanitarian crisis of the 21st century,” she said.

Unverified images posted on social media appear to show RSF fighters walking among dead bodies and wounded civilians as fighters celebrated in El-Fasher last Sunday.

RSF announced Thursday that it had arrested several fighters accused of abuses during the capture of El-Fasher, and the leader of the paramilitary group, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, promised to be held accountable for “anyone who made a mistake.”

However, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher questioned RSF’s commitment to investigating the atrocities.

The RSF – descendants of the Janjaweed militias accused of the genocide in Darfur twenty years ago – and the army have been accused of war crimes during the conflict.

The United States has already determined that RSF committed genocide in Darfur.

The RSF has received weapons and drones from the United Arab Emirates, according to UN reports, although Abu Dhabi has denied providing any support to the paramilitary group.

At the same time, the army received support from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey.

The capture of El-Fasher gives the RSF full control of the five capitals of the Darfur states, effectively dividing Sudan along an east-west axis, with the army controlling the north, east and center.

UN officials have warned that violence is now spreading to the neighboring Kordofan region, with reports of “large-scale atrocities” by the RSF.

Civilian of Sudan war broke out in April 2023when a power-sharing deal between army commanders and the RSF collapsed due to a plan to consolidate their forces. Since then, the fighting has raged and the two camps are opposed. accused of alleged war crimes as fighting fuels what the UN considers the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.