Satellite Evidence: Yale Lab Documents Mass Graves and Body Disposal

The Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), which had warned as early as July 2023 that a genocidal massacre could occur if El Fasher fell, identified at least 150 clusters of objects consistent with human remains around the city after its capture, along with evidence of a systematic multi-week campaign to burn, bury, and remove bodies to destroy evidence.

In July 2023, Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) warned the US government, the public and the UN Security Council that a genocidal massacre could occur if El Fasher fell to the RSF. Over the subsequent 18-month siege and eventual capture of the city, the lab produced more than 65 reports documenting mass killings and other atrocities against the Fur, Zaghawa and other Indigenous non-Arab people.

After RSF took total control of El Fasher on 26 October 2025, Yale HRL assessed with high confidence that the RSF engaged in widespread, systematic mass killing targeting civilians fleeing the city and those sheltering in the Daraja Oula neighborhood, followed by a systematic multi-week campaign to destroy evidence through burial, burning and removal of remains -- a pattern the lab says was ongoing as of its report.

Key findings: at least 150 clusters of objects consistent with human remains were first visible in satellite imagery collected between 26 October and 1 November 2025. Monitored through 28 November 2025, changes in cluster size occurred at 108 of 150 clusters (72%), including 57 clusters (38%) no longer visible at all -- consistent with deliberate removal or destruction of bodies.

Additional physical evidence included 38 instances of reddish discoloration consistent with blood or bodily fluids, 33 of them directly associated with clusters; RSF-consistent vehicle activity observed near at least 31 clusters; and at least 20 instances of burning objects and 8 instances of disturbed earth by 28 November 2025. Yale HRL states it did not identify any activity consistent with normal civilian burial practices in this period.

The distribution of clusters revealed four patterns: 83 clusters outside El Fasher consistent with RSF killing people as they fled; 52 clusters in the Daraja Oula neighborhood, the last major civilian refuge, consistent with door-to-door and execution-style killings; clusters at sites potentially linked to detention/filtration operations; and clusters at military installations.

Yale HRL also detected the RSF's construction of an earthen berm that trapped remaining civilians inside the city as it fell, and confirmed mass killings continued for days and weeks after the city's capture, including identification of the 150 body-consistent object clusters, some burned and buried by RSF forces.

The UN's February 2026 report, "Sudan: Hallmarks of Genocide in El-Fasher," relied heavily on this satellite analysis to conclude the RSF had dolus specialis, or specific genocidal intent, and engaged in a pattern of actions consistent with that intent. Following the UN report, the US Treasury sanctioned three RSF commanders for their roles in the siege and capture of El Fasher.

Omer Gamar-Eldin Ismail, a senior adviser at Yale HRL and former acting Sudanese foreign affairs minister who was born in El Fasher, described the toll on his own community.

"The people who were murdered, raped, tortured, starved, and displaced are my friends, family, and neighbors... the people of El-Fasher were intentionally surrounded, deprived of basic aid, and slaughtered."
— Omer Gamar-Eldin Ismail, senior adviser, Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab

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