Sudan, a War Against Civilians

Translated by Maria Pia Longo 

On October 26, 2025, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured Al Fashir, the capital of North Darfur state in Sudan. The following morning, Ibtisam (an alias for security reasons) and her five children left Al Fashir and fled toward Golo; during their flight, they were intercepted by the RSF. 

“One of them forced me to go with them, tore my jalabiya [a traditional garment], and raped me. When they left, one of my daughters, 14 years old, approached me. Her clothes were torn and bloody, and the back of her hair was covered in dust.” 

“She told me: ‘Mom, they raped me too, but don’t tell anyone.’ After the rape, my daughter fell ill. When we reached Tawila, she was hospitalized, but she died.”

These are Ibtisam's words as reported by Amnesty International: hers is one of many testimonies of what the Sudanese population has been enduring since April 2023, following the outbreak of the civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The conflict has caused around 200,000 casualties, 9 million internal displacements, 4 million refugees in neighboring countries, a famine affecting 19.5 million people, and widespread violations of the human rights of the Sudanese people.

In July 2026, the United Nations and the International Criminal Court announced they were in possession of information proving the responsibility of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for crimes against humanity and genocide. According to the UN investigation, during the siege of the city of Al Fashir in October 2025, the RSF abducted women and girls, committed gang rapes and mass killings, and caused forced starvation by obstructing the arrival of humanitarian aid and food production systems.

In the report “Cities Under Siege, Children Under Fire” published in early July 2026, Amnesty International defines this conflict as a “war against civilians”: the RSF target non-Arab civilian populations with killings, rapes, abductions, looting, and the burning of infrastructure—actions that constitute the crime of ethnic cleansing (specifically against the Zaghawa ethnic group).

Hunger is a weapon created and used by the RSF against the civilian population: since May 2024, food and humanitarian aid have been bombed daily, failing to reach civilians. In some areas, acute food insecurity has turned into famine. 70% of medical facilities are no longer operational, causing a widespread outbreak of easily preventable diseases such as cholera.

The RSF hold civilians hostage in the Mina Al-Bari prison under inhumane conditions, locked in shipping containers without food or water, beaten and insulted by guards. Many children, abducted from their home villages, are recruited by the RSF into military groups to fight or gather intelligence.

All these human rights violations against Sudanese children, women, and men constitute crimes against humanity and together form the crime of genocide, as defined by Article 6 of the Rome Statute, due to the intent to destroy an ethnic group through these actions.

In 2025, the United Nations declared Sudan the world’s most severe humanitarian crisis. Unfortunately, it is also the most neglected by the media: the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in its “Neglected Displacement Crises Report” recognized it as the most ignored crisis, based on criteria of limited or absent media coverage, insufficient funding, and a lack of intervention and willingness to support from the international community.

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