“They Were Shooting Us Like Animals”: Human Rights Council Documents RSF Militia Attack on El Fasher

Geneva – Sudanhorizon
The Human Rights Council report on the “El Fasher massacre” has been released, and its details are shocking. The authors chose to quote the phrase “They were shooting us like animals” to describe how the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)militia hunted down civilians, military prisoners, retirees, women, and children as if they were animals in the wilderness !
As for its structure, the report, published today (Friday), February 13, 2026, is 29 pages long, including an introduction, ten chapters, a conclusion, references, and maps of El Fasher and its surrounding areas, both within the city and the locality.
The report contains 27 recommendations and conclusions, including 9 general recommendations, 11 recommendations that are closer to condemning the Rapid Support Forces, and 7 directed at the international community.

The report concluded that the team found sufficient evidence to support the Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) perpetration of all atrocities:
1. The RSF and allied Arab militias committed acts amounting to war crimes.
2. Acts of violence knowingly committed as part of such an attack against the civilian population amount to crimes against humanity.
3. Immediate, credible, and impartial investigations are required to establish criminal responsibility for the documented violations in El Fasher and elsewhere.
In its summary introduction, the report notes the committee’s findings, including the call for an investigation—which implies a step towards condemnation—and points out that prior to the conflict, El Fasher had a population exceeding one million and was hosting hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs), many of whom were survivors of the previous ethnic conflict in Darfur between 2002 and 2005, primarily residing in the Abu Shouk, Al Salam, and Zamzam IDP camps. Since July 2023, the city has witnessed a further influx of displaced people, with thousands fleeing fighting in South and Central Darfur to El Fasher.
After reviewing shocking details, the report described the 18-month siege of El Fasher as brutal and that the latest attack on the city had a devastating impact on the human rights of the civilian population and the humanitarian situation, resulting in large numbers of civilian casualties and injuries, including long-term psychological trauma, missing persons, and a lack of access to basic goods and essential services, leading to hunger, death, and serious medical conditions, particularly among young children.
The report confirmed that documented patterns of grave violations of international humanitarian law and serious violations of international human rights law, including attacks directed against civilians, indiscriminate attacks, creating conditions that make the delivery of humanitarian aid virtually impossible, preventing civilians from leaving conflict-affected areas, and using starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare, strongly suggest—collectively—that the Rapid Support Forces and allied Arab militias carried out a systematic attack against the civilian population. Furthermore, many of these acts appear to have targeted civilians and retired, adolescent boys, and men, based on their ethnicity or perceived affiliations.
The report stated that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) observed that the Rapid Support Forces and allied Arab militias committed acts amounting to war crimes, including murder; deliberately directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects; launching indiscriminate attacks; using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare; attacking medical and humanitarian personnel; rape and other forms of sexual violence; torture and cruel treatment; and pillaging. The recruitment and use of children in hostilities.
The report emphasized that the killing of civilians attempting to flee, summary executions, including those outside the context of combat, the ethnic targeting of boys and adolescent men, and acts of sexual violence all point to a systematic pattern of behavior, not isolated incidents. The scale, duration, and coordinated nature of these acts indicate that the attack on the civilian population was widespread and systematic.
The report noted that the findings of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ investigation in El Fasher reveal a consistent pattern of serious violations of international humanitarian law and grave breaches of international human rights law, a pattern remarkably similar to that previously documented in the Zamzam camp for internally displaced persons in April 2025, and earlier in El Geneina and Ardamata in West Darfur in 2023.
These violations include attacks on civilians, including those targeting victims based on their ethnicity or perceived affiliation; summary executions; the use of rape and other forms of sexual violence as a weapon of war; forced displacement; denial of safe passage; attacks on fleeing civilians; abduction; possible enforced disappearances; attacks on civilian objects and humanitarian aid; and the destruction of property essential to the survival of civilians.
The report stressed that continued impunity for serious violations fuels cycles of violence and further endangers civilians. Accountability, regardless of the perpetrators’ affiliations, is essential to breaking these cycles, deterring future violations and abuses, and ensuring that victims and survivors have access to justice, including remedies and reparations. Prompt, credible, and impartial investigations are needed to establish criminal responsibility for the documented violations in El Fasher and elsewhere.
The report called for intensified efforts to end the conflict, protect civilians, prevent further harm, uphold respect for international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and ensure unimpeded humanitarian access to all those in need without discrimination. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights urged the parties to the conflict and other relevant authorities to cooperate in this regard, protecting and promoting human rights, and conducting effective investigations to ensure accountability, justice, and reparations for survivors and victims.
The report stated that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights calls on all parties to the conflict to respect and ensure respect for international humanitarian law during hostilities, particularly with regard to the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructures, and to comply with international human rights law. It also calls on them to ensure that all persons acting under their supervision, direction, or control adhere to their obligations and commitments under international humanitarian law and human rights law.

Shortlink: https://sudanhorizon.com/?p=11233