Photo by FCDO / Russell Watkins (CC BY 2.0)

The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted a resolution directing an independent fact-finding mission to investigate reports of human rights violations including mass killings in El Fasher, North Darfur. The Council’s held its 38th special session to address the concerns over crimes against humanity and the potential risk of genocide in Sudan.

In its resolution (A/HRC/S-38/L.1), the Council condemned RSF and allied forces for killings, torture, executions, and widespread sexual and gender-based violence. UN experts reported hundreds of rapes of women and girls along escape routes describing the attacks as a deliberate weapon of war.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk emphasized that the atrocities in El Fasher were “foreseen and preventable” and called on all actors to take immediate, concrete measures to protect civilians. African Union Special Envoy Adama Dieng urged the international community to cease the flow of weapons and fighters into Sudan, warning that external support was exacerbating the situation in the country.

In October 2025, El Fasher was taken over by RSF after a 540-day siege. Since the takeover, reports have denoted mass killings and attacks on civilians, deepening the humanitarian crisis in the region. Since the conflict began in April 2023, the fighting between Sudan’s army and the RSF has killed thousands, displaced 12 million people, and produced one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Nearly 100,000 people have fled El Fasher since the RSF takeover, and Sudan now faces one of the world’s most severe displacement crises, with 8.6 million internally displaced and more than 3 million refugees in neighboring countries.

As conditions in El Fasher continue to decline, the Council’s resolution represents one of the most significant international responses to date.