Rights group accuses three paramilitary commanders of war crimes in Sudan

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Three senior commanders of Sudan’s paramilitary forces were named in a new report from rights group Amnesty International accusing them of overseeing war crimes during the siege and capture of el-Fasher in North Darfur in October.

Speaking on Wednesday during the launch of the report in Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, committed crimes against humanity and acts of ethnic cleansing during the assault on the city. She called for an immediate ceasefire and the deployment of a United Nations protection force to safeguard civilians.

More than 6,000 people were killed in three days in October 2025 when the RSF seized el-Fasher in an attack that U.N. experts said bore the “hallmarks of genocide.”

Amnesty International analyzed nine videos that showed one RSF commander executing civilians, another torturing detainees, and a third ordering the torture of prisoners.

Callamard said the RSF committed murder, forcible transfer, imprisonment, torture, rape, sexual slavery, other forms of sexual violence, enslavement, extermination and persecution. She urged the international community to intervene and stop the attacks on civilians that continue “unhindered”.

“It also requires strengthening accountability by ensuring sufficient support for all existing accountability mechanisms for Sudan, including the International Criminal Court, and U.N. and African Union-backed fact-finding missions. Commanders identified in this report should be investigated and, where there is sufficient admissible evidence, prosecuted,” Callamard said.

The RSF has not commented on the Amnesty report. Amnesty International said it shared the report with the paramilitary group’s leader, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, last month but had not received a response.

The war in Sudan erupted in April 2023, after long-simmering tensions between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. The conflict has killed at least 59,000 people, displaced some 13 million, and pushed many parts of the country into famine. More than 30 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.