Sudan Doctors Say 2,000 Killed, Some Burned Alive in El Fasher

30 October 2025

RSF members inside El Fasher on August 31, 2025

October 29, 2025 (KHARTOUM) – A Sudanese doctors’ union said on Wednesday that 2,000 civilians were killed, some of them burned alive, in the first hours after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured North Darfur’s capital, El Fasher.

The claims of widespread atrocities were supported by a report from Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, which said it had confirmed evidence of ongoing mass killings in the 48 hours since the RSF seized the city on Oct. 26. Satellite imagery released by the lab showed bloodstains from executions, the report added.

“Reports indicate the killing of 2,000 civilians and the liquidation of innocent people by burning them alive,” the Preliminary Committee of the Sudan Doctors Union said in a statement.

The union detailed a series of horrific violations, including summary executions and house-to-house raids. It said victims were forced to dig their own graves and bury themselves alive.

An estimated 177,000 civilians remain besieged in the city, with the union stating that many who tried to flee in their vehicles were burned alive inside them.

The committee also reported the “field execution” of more than 450 patients and wounded people at the city’s main hospital. An additional 1,200 elderly, sick and wounded individuals were killed in field health facilities, while hospitals and pharmacies were looted, the statement said.

The violence has triggered a new wave of displacement, with an estimated 28,000 people fleeing in just 48 hours amid attacks on escape routes. The doctors’ union confirmed that over 1,000 injured and starving people had reached the nearby area of Tawila.