Yale research lab finds evidence that Sudanese group buried, burned, and removed human remains after el-Fasher massacre.
The Sudanese paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have carried out a systematic, weeks-long campaign to erase evidence of mass killings in the city of el-Fasher, according to a recent report released by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL).
“RSF’s mass killing campaign targeted civilians attempting to flee the city and those seeking refuge in the Daraja Oula neighborhood,” the report, released on Tuesday, said, referring to a neighbourhood in el-Fasher where massacres occurred. “RSF subsequently engaged in a systematic multi-week campaign to destroy evidence of its mass killings through burial, burning, and removal of human remains on a mass scale. This pattern of body disposal and destruction is ongoing.”
El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, was formerly the Sudanese Armed Forces’s last stronghold in the region and had been besieged by the RSF for more than 18 months before falling on October 26. At least 1,500 people were killed in 48 hours after the RSF took control of el-Fasher, according to monitoring groups.
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In Sudan, a civil war has been raging between the SAF and the RSF since April 15, 2023. The country has become home to the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, according to the UN and humanitarian groups. Tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the war, while more than 13 million are displaced, and at least another 30 million are in need of vital humanitarian aid.
The Yale report, titled the “RSF’s Systematic Mass Killings and Body Disposal in el-Fasher, North Darfur between October 26 and November 28, 2025, relied on satellite imagery, open source data, local news reporting, and remote sensing data. Yale researchers, who have spent years tracking the war in Sudan, also found that the RSF engaged in certain patterns of killings, including the murder of people as they fled attacks, mass killings including door-to-door and execution-style killings, mass killings at sites affiliated with detention, and mass killings at military installations.
The researchers identified clusters of what they termed objects consistent with human remains in and around the vicinity of el-Fasher.
HRL found that in 72 percent of the incidents it observed by November 28, the size of these clusters had gotten smaller, while 38 percent were no longer visible at all, indicating an effort to conceal the killing of people.
It also recorded “at least 20 instances of burning objects and 8 instances of disturbed earth”.
The RSF paramilitary force grew out of a notorious government-linked militia called the Janjaweed. The Janjaweed were accused of carrying out a genocide during the Darfur conflict in the 2000s, and the RSF has been accused by the United States and others of committing genocide in the current war.
Earlier this month, a prominent Sudanese doctor’s group accused the RSF of raping at least 19 women as they overtook el-Fasher. As el-Fasher fell to the RSF in late October, the paramilitary group simultaneously launched an offensive against the Kordofan region, potentially further expanding the territory under its control.
Some experts have said they fear more massacres could occur in the fight for Kordofan. More than 116 people, including children, were killed in a recent attack on a pre-school and other sites in South Kordofan’s Kalogi.
Despite international criticism and condemnation of the group and its actions, the RSF has attempted to portray itself as a legitimate international actor. In June, it announced the establishment of an alternative government, led by RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, that would rival the military’s authorities in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital.
