From far away, the tiny objects littering the grounds of El-Fasher, Sudan might not look like anything, slightly discolored; their white and red spots show a stark contrast to the once empty space captured by Satellite images a couple of days prior. Other images show burnt vehicles and dark spots outside of buildings. To the untrained eye, they might not look like much, but the images, collected on October 28, 2025, verify the ongoing massacre of the city, and the white and red discoloration, the bodies of those killed.
Yale University’s Humanitarian Crisis research team has been collecting satellite images of Sudan throughout the civil war. Recent results found that 31 of the clusters from the satellite images were consistent with human remains. Communication within El Fasher has been extremely restricted since the invasion and mass killings by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Those who escaped report people being beaten, robbed, and killed in their pursuit to escape, with children witnessing their parents being gunned down. One of the most concerning factors, reported by Yale University, is the absence of movement within the city.
The ongoing civil war in Sudan, which began in April 2023, has resulted in the destruction of cities, the death of thousands, and the starvation and displacement of millions. In my previous blog, Chlorine Warfare in Sudan’s Ongoing Humanitarian Crisis, the SAF’s use of chlorine gas was evaluated in relation to International Humanitarian Law, along with the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. With the recent massacre of El-Fasher, satellite images have further highlighted the devastation of the war.
International Humanitarian Law outlines the protections of civilians, medical workers, civilian infrastructure, and hospitals. Violations of these are considered war crimes. Throughout the war, both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Force (RSF) have violated International Humanitarian Law and committed war crimes. This blog will discuss the recent satellite images and the end to the 500-day siege of El-Fasher, which highlights the human rights and international humanitarian law violations that are occurring there.
The End of the 500 Day Siege and the Massacre of El-Fasher
Darfur, a region located in west Sudan, holds El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. This region borders Chad, which has seen an influx in refugees since the start of the civil war. El-Fasher was the last major stronghold controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in Darfur. On October 23, 2025, after the 500-day siege of El Fasher, RSF fighters targeted civilian homes; large scale execution, starvation, and sexual violence have ensued.
Targeting civilians, civilian infrastructure, hospitals, medical workers, and humanitarian workers are all violations of International Humanitarian Law and constitute war crimes. There have also been reports of summary executions that specifically target certain ethnic groups. Summary killing means the execution of a person or people who are accused of a crime but have not been given a trial.
In Tawila, a town close to El-Fasher, 652,000 displaced people are taking shelter. Since the RSF took control of El Fasher, hospitals, their patients and medical workers have been targeted. Reports state that in the Saudi Maternity Hospital, which is located in El-Fasher, patients were massacred, medics were attacked, and humanitarian workers were targeted. In this hospital, which had survived multiple bombings and continued to offer medical aid, close to 500 people were executed.
While the RSF have consistently committed atrocities against civilians and humanitarian aid workers, the SAF have also recklessly bombed areas, which has caused the death of civilians and reduced civilian infrastructure to rubble. The SAF has also contributed to the increase in sexual violence throughout the war, tortured people, desecrated bodies, and killed people without first giving them a trial.
In Human Rights Watch’s report on Sudan, they stated that both the RSF and the SAF are complicit in blocking aid. Both sides have also knowingly targeted local first responders. Throughout the war, one thing has been apparent; both sides are willing to target civilians and commit war crimes in order to get what they want. This brutality has been dramatically apparent in El-Fasher, where there is disturbing evidence that a massacre is likely to have occurred there in recent weeks.
Satellite Imaging Evidence
There are many difficulties in gathering accurate information about ongoing atrocities, given the dangers of reporting from such areas and the challenges of communicating information from the affected areas to the outside world. Because of this, satellite imagery can be highly useful for producing real-time assessments of severe human rights abuses such as those being committed in El-Fasher. Throughout the end of October, 2025, Yale University observed and collected satellite imaging of El-Fasher, Sudan. In a side by side of two images, there are clusters of objects and ground discoloration. On October 27th, the viewer can see a group of objects with red and white discoloration around it. Just four days later, on October 31st, you can see the cluster on the ground, but the red and white discoloration have faded. This can be seen in Yale University’s Humanitarian Crisis Research Lab’s report on satellite imaging in El-Fasher, Sudan, on page 28. The report interprets this information as follows:
“Yale HRL assesses the fading of red discoloration as an additional data point corroborating its assessments that these discolorations are related to bodily fluid including red” (pg. 7, Yale School of Public Health: Humanitarian Research Lab).
On page 29 of the report, you can see clusters of objects near and around the Al-Saudi Hospital, taken on October 28, 2025. In the images, white objects surround the outside walls of the hospital. These objects are not seen in satellite images that were taken of the area prior to October 28th, and they are not seen again in images taken on October 31st, see page 30.
Yale HRL reports that its recent satellite images have not picked up any mass movement heading out of El-Fasher, even though the city was said to have an estimated 250,000 people living there. The lack of movement is suspicious, and Yale HRL interprets it as indicating “that the majority of civilians are dead, captured, or in hiding” (see page 3 of the report). In the absence of reliable communications from El-Fasher, this satellite imagery provides essential documentation of likely human rights abuses that can be used to inform the human rights community and spur people to action.
Conclusion
In the weeks since RSF ransacked El-Fasher, around 100,00 people have escaped to nearby villages. The situation in Sudan continues to be critical, and the situation in El-Fasher, dire. There are still people trapped within the city, and little information has come out in regards to how many were killed by the RSF.
The estimated number of people residing in El-Fasher before the conflict was 250,000, not including those taking refuge there. With only 100,000 people having been reported to have escaped, this leaves over half the population of El-Fasher unaccounted for. According to the reports, there has been little movement within the city, with the images of clusters and discolorations a testament to that. These indications that grave human rights abuses have recently been committed in El-Fasher should concern human rights defenders everywhere.
