And since the bodies are now likely being buried, that also makes any full explanation for the city’s takeover much more difficult, particularly because investigators would have to unearth the bodies in an area now in the hands of the warring party that allegedly committed the atrocities.
“The crimes being committed are so horrendous,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday, warning that the war in Sudan was getting “out of control” and calling for “accountability mechanisms” over what happened in El Fasher.
The children of El Fasher find safety in a refugee camp in Tawila.Credit: Norwegian Refugee Council/AP
On Friday, the UN said it feared hundreds of deaths. But there are concerns about tens of thousands of people who are believed to have fled the city since October 26, but have not yet reached the Tawila refugee camp, 65 kilometers away.
So far only 10,000 people have managed to reach the camp out of the 62,000 believed to have fled. Those who have managed to get there tell harrowing stories of survival, passing bodies and people injured along the way.
Previous satellite images analyzed by the lab and the Associated Press last week showed white objects on the grounds of the Saudi hospital and near the former children’s hospital, immediately after the RSF takeover of the city. The Yale lab identified those objects as likely corpses, with blood stains that can be seen from space.
RSF has denied killing anyone at the Saudi hospital, but testimonies from those who fled El Fasher, online videos and satellite images offer an apocalyptic version of the attack.
Satellite images last week of an earthen dam built north of El Fasher this year to isolate the city and trap its residents also showed white, corpse-like objects lying on the ground, next to burned vehicles.
That area corresponds to online images showing dozens of bodies and RSF fighters moving through the area, shooting and talking to those wounded in the attack. Some of the dead appeared to be armed combatants. The Yale lab said in its report Wednesday that new satellite images suggest that some of the bodies from that attack had also been removed.
In an earlier report, published last week, when satellite images showed the first evidence of mass killings, the Yale lab said his worst fears had come trueand had been trying for months to warn of what was going to happen in El Fasher.
“The nations of the world could say that they could not have stopped it, but they cannot reasonably say that they did not know,” the authors said, adding that it appeared that the city was now caught in a “systematic and intentional process of ethnic cleansing” of non-Arab peoples. The RSF is predominantly ethnically Arab.
The RSF is believed to be backed by the United Arab Emirates, but they have denied supporting its military campaign.
The White House said on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) it was working with other nations to end the conflict. But the Sudanese military, which is backed by Egypt and Iran, has rejected a US proposal for a ceasefire and says it will rally public support to fight the RSF.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia was horrified by reports of mass killings, sexual violence and deliberate attacks on civilians in El Fasher and would commit an additional $10 million in humanitarian assistance.
Charging
“We condemn the atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces and call for an immediate end to the violence and unhindered humanitarian access,” he said.
The war between the RSF and the army began in April 2023. More than 40,000 people have been killed, according to UN figures, but aid groups say the real death toll could be many times higher.
El Fasher was the last stronghold of the Sudanese army in Darfur and its capture marks a milestone in the civil war, giving the RSF de facto control of more than a quarter of the territory.
