UN Fact-Finding Mission: RSF Committed Genocide Against the Zaghawa and Fur

In February 2026, the UN's Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan concluded that at least three underlying acts of genocide were committed against non-Arab communities in and around El Fasher, finding genocidal intent was 'the only reasonable inference' from the RSF's conduct. Survivors quoted RSF fighters vowing to 'eliminate anything black from Darfur.'

In February 2026, the UN's Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan (FFM) found evidence establishing at least three underlying acts of genocide under the Genocide Convention: killing members of a protected ethnic group; causing serious bodily and mental harm; and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction in whole or in part.

"The scale, coordination, and public endorsement of the operation by senior RSF leadership demonstrate that the crimes committed in and around El Fasher were not random excesses of war... They formed part of a planned and organized operation that bears the defining characteristics of genocide."
— Mohamed Chande Othman, Chair, UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan

The mission cited an 18-month siege that deliberately imposed conditions of life through deprivation of food, water, medical care and humanitarian assistance; a pattern of identity-based targeting linked to ethnicity, gender and perceived political affiliation; documented mass killings, widespread rape and sexual violence, arbitrary detention, torture, extortion and enforced disappearances; and perpetrator rhetoric explicitly calling for the elimination of non-Arab communities.

Direct survivor quotes of RSF fighters cited in the report include statements such as "Is there anyone Zaghawa among you? If we find Zaghawa, we will kill them all" and "We want to eliminate anything black from Darfur." The report also documented "selective targeting" of Zaghawa and Fur women and girls for sexual violence, while women perceived as Arab were often spared.

"The body of evidence we collected -- including the prolonged siege, starvation and denial of humanitarian assistance, followed by mass killings, rape, torture and enforced disappearance, systematic humiliation and perpetrators' own declarations -- leaves only one reasonable inference... The RSF acted with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Zaghawa and Fur communities in El Fasher. These are the hallmarks of genocide."
— Mona Rishmawi, member, UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan

The Zaghawa and Fur were targeted in part because men from those groups fought with militias allied to the Sudanese military defending El Fasher's garrison. Survivors said some captives were blindfolded, bound and driven away while fighters chanted "slave, slave, slave."

The mission warned that, absent prevention and accountability measures, the risk of further genocidal acts remains serious and ongoing, including in the neighboring Kordofan region, where the RSF has been expanding. This February 2026 finding echoes an earlier, separate US genocide determination from January 2025 covering RSF conduct against the Masalit in El Geneina in 2023, establishing a documented pattern across multiple non-Arab ethnic groups and locations over several years.

Sources

  • UN News -- Primary UN report coverage: legal findings, mission chair and member quotes
  • CBC News -- Additional detail on death toll context, the "selective targeting" finding, and survivor quotes
  • New York Times -- Reporting connecting this finding to the 2023 US genocide determination regarding the Masalit