MSF takes note of the report published on 19 February by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan, which found that acts of genocide were committed and that a coordinated campaign of destruction against mainly non-Arab communities has been conducted in and around El-Fasher. These findings are consistent with our observations in recent months.
Following the attack carried out mid-April by the RSF and their allies on Zamzam camp, located south of El Fasher, MSF documented, most notably in our report ‘Besieged, attacked, starved: Mass atrocities in Zamzam and El Fasher, Sudan’, how the RSF and their allies had systematically targeted non-Arab communities, and particularly the Zaghawa. The violence included shelling, looting, mass killings, sexual violence, extortion and abductions. Non-Arab communities have been left without food, water, and medical care, contributing to the spread of famine.
Famine had already been confirmed by the IPC Global Famine Review Committee in El Fasher in December 2024. Following the fall of El Fasher, MSF screened people arriving in Tawila and found alarming levels of malnutrition. Among children under five, 63% were malnourished, including 30% with Severe Acute Malnutrition. Among adults, 50% were malnourished, including 18% severely so, and 67% of pregnant and lactating women were affected. These findings highlight the devastating impact of the RSF siege, which enforced over 500 days of starvation by trapping residents behind high walls and cutting off food, medical care, and humanitarian aid.
Located in Tawila, around 60 kilometres from El Fasher, our medical teams treated in the month following the fall of the city 1,400 patients for violence-related injuries in the emergency room. More than 400 surgical procedures were performed. Many of those who managed to reach Tawila reported extreme violence along the way, including seeing dead bodies and experiencing or witnessing torture, kidnappings for ransom, sexual violence, and looting. MSF treated more than 1,000 victims of sexual violence in Tawila between April and October 2025. More than 90% of survivors were assaulted on the road and over 95% by armed men. Following the fall of El Fasher, an additional 732 survivors were identified and received comprehensive support, most having been raped by RSF during the assault or as they fled. When MSF teams entered El Fasher on 15 January, they observed widespread destruction and neighbourhoods largely emptied of residents.
