Our Purpose Is Only Executing' - How The Sudanese Vicious Fighting Force Carried out a Mass Killing
Caution: This Report Contains Disturbing Accounts of Shootings.
Fighters laugh as they move on the rear of a utility vehicle, speeding past a row of multiple dead bodies and moving towards the setting Sudan's evening sky.
"See all this work. Look at this act of genocide," one cheers.
He beams as he directs the video equipment on his own face and his companion fighters, their RSF identification clearly shown: "They shall all perish this way."
The combatants are rejoicing over a massacre that humanitarian officials believe claimed the lives of more than two thousand people in the Sudanese urban center of the Darfur city last month.
A City Severed from the World
After maintaining the urban area under blockade for nearly 24 months, from the summer the militia advanced to strengthen its control and blockade the leftover inhabitants.
Satellite images reveal that fighters began to erect a massive sand wall - a built-up dirt embankment - surrounding the edges of el-Fasher, sealing off entry points and blocking relief supplies.
While the blockade intensified, multiple people were killed in an paramilitary attack on a place of worship on mid-September, while the United Nations stated fifty-three further were killed in drone and cannon attacks on a refugee settlement in October.
Graphic Footage Shows Unarmed Civilians Executed
By sunrise on late October the RSF overwhelmed the remaining military defenses and seized the central compound in the city, the headquarters of the Military Unit, as the military withdrew.
One of the most disturbing footage to emerge and studied depicted the consequences of a massacre at a educational facility on the western side of the urban area, where scores corpses were observed scattered across the floor.
An elderly man dressed in a white tunic sat isolated amid the victims. He turned to gaze as a fighter equipped with a weapon walked descending the staircase facing the victim. Raising his rifle, the gunman released a solitary bullet at the individual, who dropped to the surface lifeless.
"How come is this one still breathing," another fighter exclaimed. "Kill this one."
Space-based imagery recorded on late October appeared to verify that shootings were additionally carried out on the streets of el-Fasher, according to a analysis published by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab.
A key observer who spoke said he had observed "numerous of our kin being killed - these individuals were gathered in one place and everyone murdered."
Paramilitary Leaders Try to Implement Reputation Management
In the days that followed the atrocity, militia chief admitted that his fighters had perpetrated "atrocities" and said the incidents would be investigated.
Included among detained was following a investigation documenting his killings. Deliberately orchestrated and modified video posted on the RSF's official messaging channel show him being led into a cell at a detention facility on the edges of el-Fasher.
Simultaneously, the paramilitary force and affiliated online channels started attempting to reshape the account.
Updates showing its combatants distributing aid to inhabitants were shared by several accounts, while the paramilitary's communications team published multiple recordings purporting to show the proper treatment of government captives.
Regardless of the social media initiative being employed by the paramilitary, their conduct in el-Fasher have generated global outrage.