Snatched in Conflict: RSF Accused of Child Abductions in Darfur

By Al Mayadeen English

30 Jan 2026 16:00

Paramilitary fighters from the RSF reportedly abducted dozens of children during attacks in El Fasher and across Darfur amid the Sudanese conflict.

Paramilitary fighters reportedly kidnapped children during their takeover of the Sudanese city of El Fasher in October, as well as in other attacks across the Darfur region during the Sudanese conflict, according to witness accounts collected by Reuters. In several cases, witnesses said the fighters killed the children’s parents before abducting the minors.

The accounts, based on interviews with more than two dozen witnesses who spoke in person or by phone after fleeing to the North Darfur town of Tawila or eastern Chad, describe 23 separate incidents in which at least 56 children aged between two months and 17 years were abducted.

Six witnesses said their own relatives were among the children taken. Some witnesses said RSF fighters told families the children would be used as slaves or to herd animals.

The Rapid Support Forces, which evolved from the Janjaweed militias that fought alongside government forces under former Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, have been locked in war with Sudan’s army since April 2023 over control of the country’s rich mineral reserves, arable land, and Red Sea ports.

While human rights groups have documented alleged war crimes by both sides, including the recruitment of child combatants, the abduction and enslavement of children by the RSF and allied militias has not been previously reported.

RSF kidnaps children after killing their parents in front of them

Witnesses described RSF militants taking children whose parents had recently been killed, often at gunpoint or after beating them. In some cases, children witnessed their parents being killed before being seized. Ten witnesses interviewed in Chad described RSF fighters abducting children during the takeover of El Fasher, both in the city and along the road to Tawila, a town approximately 50 kilometers west, where the UN estimates 665,000 displaced people are sheltering.

Madina Adam Khamis, 38, recounted being held captive at El Fasher University along with other women and children after trying to flee the city on October 26. She said she witnessed an RSF fighter known as Abu Lulu shoot many captives, including a pregnant woman and ten children.

She added that Abu Lulu and his group took three girls and two boys aged between two and five years old, whose mothers had been killed, and put them in the back of a Toyota Land Cruiser. Another fighter reportedly took a two-month-old baby from the arms of one of the girls and rode with the infant in the vehicle. Khamis said the children were from El Fasher, though she did not know their names.

Similarly, Mohammed Adam Bashir, 38, said he saw RSF fighters take two boys of around four to five years old and a three-year-old girl after shooting their mothers dead, as he fled north from El Fasher to Torro village on October 26. “They pulled the children away from their two mothers who were dying,” he said. “They took them to the car and then they came back to ask us for money.”

Children's fates remain unknown

None of the witnesses interviewed by Reuters was able to determine the fate of the children after they were taken. Abdulmajeed Abdulkarim, 28, said he heard children crying for their parents at night while being held captive in a bush area near Garney in the days following the fall of El Fasher. Researchers interviewing people displaced by the Darfur violence have documented similar testimonies.

A recent Amnesty International report detailed one case in which a child abducted by RSF fighters in Zamzam displacement camp was forced to herd sheep for more than six weeks, chained at night, and only released after his family paid a ransom of five million Sudanese pounds ($1,500).

Witnesses reported that fighters referred to abducted children as “falungiat", roughly translating to house slaves, a term historically used for allies of the Sudanese army. Many witnesses, primarily from the Zaghawa tribe, said RSF fighters addressed them with racial slurs.

Several witnesses also described children being taken alongside seized livestock, with fighters telling families the children would help care for the animals, a role historically assigned to children in the region.

Legal experts told Reuters that the abductions could constitute unlawful imprisonment and torture, potentially amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Sheldon Yett, head of UNICEF in Sudan, said he had not received reports of children being kidnapped specifically for slavery or livestock work but noted the accounts gathered by Reuters “are sadly consistent with the broader pattern of grave violations we continue to see against children.”

The Sudanese army, when asked about the witness accounts, said the acts were “consistent with those of the Janjaweed militia during the previous regime,” referencing the RSF’s historical roots.