New satellite imagery has revealed activity consistent with mass graves in El-Fasher, the Sudanese city seized by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last month, according to a report released Thursday by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab. The findings come more than a week after eyewitness accounts and videos surfaced documenting mass killings in the Darfur city.
The RSF, engaged in a brutal conflict with Sudan’s army for over two years, took full control of El-Fasher on October 26 after an 18-month siege. Satellite analysis since the takeover shows evidence of door-to-door killings, blood-stained areas, trenches, and bodies visible along an earthen berm, corroborating reports from local witnesses and footage circulated online.
Yale’s HRL report identified at least two earth disturbances consistent with mass graves near a mosque and the former Children’s Hospital. Imagery also indicates that bodies were deposited and later moved from several sites, including Al-Saudi Hospital, where the World Health Organization reported the deaths of over 460 patients and medical staff during the city’s fall. Researchers noted that the dimensions of potential mass graves make it impossible to determine the exact number of bodies, as victims are often layered on top of one another.
Satellite imagery around the former Children’s Hospital, now used as a detention site by the RSF, suggests ongoing mass killings in the area. Prior to El-Fasher’s fall, the HRL observed only individual burials consistent with traditional practices across zones controlled by either the RSF, Sudanese army, or allied forces. Since the city’s capture, the lab has identified at least 34 groups of objects consistent with bodies, which is believed to underestimate the true scale of the violence.
The Sudanese conflict, which began in April 2023, pits army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy, RSF commander Mohammed Hamdan Daglo. The Darfur region has borne the brunt of the violence, particularly after El-Fasher, the army’s last stronghold in the area, fell. With communications disrupted and access restricted, satellite imagery remains a critical tool for monitoring the humanitarian crisis in isolated regions.
Violence has since spread to North Kordofan, where a recent attack on a funeral in El-Obeid killed 40 people, according to U.N. reports. The RSF has also claimed control of Bara, a city north of El-Obeid that serves as a strategic logistics hub connecting Darfur to Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.
