News Center — During their takeover of the city of El Fasher, the Rapid Support Forces directly targeted people with disabilities, committing violations against them including killing, torture, and ill-treatment, at a time when fears are increasing that these violations may expand and rise to the level of mass crimes.

The organization "Human Rights Watch" said yesterday, Wednesday, February 25th, that the Rapid Support Forces targeted, mistreated, and killed people with disabilities during their attack and following their takeover of the city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, affirming that this is the first time violations of this kind and on this scale have been documented.

For a year and a half, the Rapid Support Forces imposed a siege on the city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state and the last major urban center in the region outside their control, before they stormed it on October 26, 2025. This was followed by reports of mass killings, kidnappings, rape, and widespread looting.

The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan reported last week that the attack on El Fasher bears the "characteristics of genocide."

The co-director for disability rights at Human Rights Watch, Imena Serimovitch, affirmed that the organization has been documenting violations against people with disabilities in armed conflicts around the world for over a decade, noting that what is happening in Sudan is the first time that targeted violations of this breadth and brutality have been recorded.

According to information gathered by the organization from interviews with 22 survivors and witnesses from the city of El Fasher, it concluded that RSF fighters targeted civilians with disabilities as they attempted to flee, in a flagrant violation of the laws of war and humanitarian standards.

She explained that the Rapid Support Forces treated people with disabilities as suspects, a burden, or expendable people, adding that fighters accused some victims, especially amputees, of being wounded combatants and arbitrarily executed them, while others were beaten, abused, or harassed because of their disability, and fighters mocked them, calling them "crazy" or "incomplete."

In the context of international reactions, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions days ago on four leaders of the Rapid Support Forces due to the atrocities committed in El Fasher, a step that reflects escalating global concern over the scale and severity of the violations.

The ongoing conflict in Sudan since April 15, 2023, between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands, forced nearly 12 million people to displace internally or seek refuge abroad, and led to widespread destruction of infrastructure, making Sudan face one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, according to UN estimates.