El Geneina 2023: Genocide Against the Masalit

In 2023, the RSF and allied Arab militias carried out a documented genocide against the Masalit ethnic group in El Geneina, West Darfur, killing between 10,000 and 15,000 people, systematically executing men and boys at checkpoints, and driving 98% of refugees arriving in Chad to register as Masalit. The US government formally determined this constituted genocide in January 2025.

Between 24 April and 17 June 2023, the RSF and allied Arab militias carried out more than 15 coordinated attacks on El Geneina using heavy artillery and close-range executions, primarily targeting Masalit areas, killing between 10,000 and 15,000 people according to the UN Security Council Panel of Experts on Sudan. Survivors consistently reported being targeted explicitly because they were Masalit.

RSF and allied militias systematically attacked, burned and destroyed IDP sites hosting over 80,000 people, mostly Masalit, who had already been displaced by prior attacks. They shelled schools and mosques functioning as shelters with artillery and mortar fire and destroyed all medical facilities. Roadblocks, checkpoints and snipers throughout the city prevented escape and even prevented residents from collecting water.

After asking residents to disclose tribal affiliation, RSF fighters rounded up Masalit men for execution or prolonged detention without food or water, marching them through the streets calling them "Anbai" (slaves). On 14 June 2023, RSF and allied militia murdered West Darfur's governor, Khamis Abakar, hours after he gave an interview decrying the "ongoing genocide" and calling for international intervention; he was executed and mutilated.

Following the governor's assassination, a mass exodus occurred: roughly 70,000 people fled to Ardamata, 6km northwest of the city, and about 12,000 fled on foot to Adre, Chad between 14 and 17 June. UNHCR reported that 98% of refugees registering in Chad in this period were Masalit; nearly 70% of El Geneina's approximately 540,000 mostly-Masalit residents fled the city.

RSF and militia continued targeting fleeing Masalit at checkpoints, interrogating people about ethnicity and summarily executing Masalit men and boys at close range. At checkpoints, fighters reportedly inspected children's genitals, murdering boys and infants on the spot to prevent them from "becoming fighters." Masalit women attempted to save male children by dressing them in female garments; others survived by claiming a different tribal identity.

After the June and November 2023 massacres, the RSF and allied militias forced members of non-Arab groups to bury thousands of bodies in mass graves and confiscated survivors' phones to suppress evidence.

A Sudanese Red Crescent volunteer reported loading 400 bodies in a single week, many with bullet wounds to the head. From late April to mid-June, at least 1,000 bodies were buried in al-Ghabat cemetery, a process that lasted weeks due to the volume of dead.

Elsewhere in Darfur the same ethnic pattern recurred. In Kutum, on 4 June 2023, RSF and allied militia killed more than 40 people and destroyed the town. In Tawila, on 18-19 June 2023, populated mainly by the Fur, RSF and allied militias killed civilians, raped women, razed the market and burned properties, displacing tens of thousands. The Kalma IDP camp in South Darfur, housing 500,000 IDPs, was besieged with entrances blocked and residents subjected to sexual violence and starvation.

On 7 January 2025, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken formally determined that the RSF and allied militias had committed genocide in Darfur, citing systematic murder and sexual violence targeting civilians on the basis of ethnicity, and restriction of aid access on an ethnic basis -- a genocide determination that predates and parallels the UN's later El Fasher findings.

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