Sudan rights commission says 6,000 held in RSF-run prisons in El Fasher

Adel Abdelrheem and Rania Abushamala

Sudan’s state-run National Human Rights Commission said Sunday that it had documented 6,000 detention cases in prisons run by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state in the country’s west.

The figures were presented during a workshop reviewing the commission’s report on the country’s human rights situation, according to the state news agency SUNA.

Kamal al-Din al-Dandrawi, head of the committee that prepared the report, said the war in Sudan had created “the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe,” forcing 14 million people from their homes as refugees or internally displaced persons, while around 25 million others face food shortages.

He said the report documented grave human rights violations committed by the RSF, including 6,000 cases of detention in El Fasher’s prisons.

According to local and international organizations, the RSF’s capture of El Fasher on Oct. 26, 2025, was accompanied by massacres against civilians, amid warnings that the takeover could deepen the country’s geographic division.

Dandrawi said the report also documented impunity, violence against women and children, and violations of the rights to education and health.

He added that 80% of Sudan’s health institutions had been destroyed, while freedom of movement and residence had been violated.

The report also accused the RSF of attacking civilian infrastructure, including looting the Central Bank of Sudan and 20 commercial banks, destroying eight airports, damaging 50 aircraft in shelling, and attacking embassies, UN missions, mosques and churches.

Sudanese medical and human rights organizations have also accused the RSF of detaining more than 19,000 people in Dagrees and Kober prisons in South Darfur, as well as in other detention centers across the Darfur region.

Sudan has been engulfed in conflict since April 2023, when fighting erupted between the army and the RSF over plans to integrate the paramilitary force into the military. The war has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, killing tens of thousands and displacing millions of others.