🔗 Share this article

Fighters smirk as they move on the back of a pick-up truck, speeding alongside a row of nine dead bodies and driving towards the setting African sunset.

"See this extensive work. Observe this act of ethnic cleansing," one exclaims.

The fighter grins as he turns the camera on himself and his fellow combatants, their RSF insignia clearly shown: "The victims will all be killed this way."

The combatants are celebrating a atrocity that aid workers suspect resulted in the deaths of more than thousands of people in the Sudanese urban center of the Darfur city during October.

An Urban Center Isolated from the World

Following their control of the city under blockade for approximately two years, from the summer the paramilitary force advanced to reinforce its dominance and blockade the leftover residents.

Satellite images demonstrate that fighters commenced to build a immense berm - a built-up dirt embankment - surrounding the perimeter of al-Fashir, closing access routes and halting humanitarian assistance.

During the encirclement intensified, multiple civilians were killed in an paramilitary attack on a place of worship on mid-September, while the UN said 53 more were killed in drone and artillery strikes on a refugee settlement in the autumn.

Explicit Footage Depicts Weaponless People Shot

At dawn on 26 October the militia conquered the remaining military strongholds and captured the main base in the community, the command center of the 6th Infantry Division, as the army pulled back.

Perhaps the most horrific footage to appear and studied depicted the consequences of a mass killing at a educational facility on the west of the urban area, where scores corpses were seen spread over the area.

An older individual clad in a white tunic was seated by himself surrounded by the bodies. The man rotated to look as a fighter carrying with a firearm moved down the steps in the direction of the individual. Raising his weapon, the fighter released a solitary round at the man, who fell to the ground motionless.

"How come is this individual still breathing," one combatant cried. "Kill this person."

Orbital photography captured on 26 October indicated to confirm that executions were also carried out on the streets of al-Fashir, based on a report published by the university analysis team.

One eyewitness who communicated said the individual had seen "numerous of our relatives getting massacred - they were assembled in a specific area and everyone eliminated."

Militia Commanders Attempt to Conduct Damage Control

Following the events that ensued from the atrocity, RSF leader acknowledged that his fighters had perpetrated "atrocities" and announced the occurrences would be looked into.

Part of the detained was subsequent to a investigation recording his executions. Carefully choreographed and produced recording published on the RSF's official Telegram account show the individual being escorted into a prison room at a prison on the edges of al-Fashir.

Simultaneously, the paramilitary force and connected digital channels commenced seeking to reshape the story.

Posts depicting its combatants providing supplies to civilians were circulated by various individuals, while the force's public relations unit shared numerous videos allegedly to demonstrate the humane management of army detainees.

Regardless of the digital initiative being deployed by the RSF, their conduct in el-Fasher have provoked worldwide anger.