The Final Hours of El Fasher: A City Abandoned to Slaughter
In the early hours of October 27, 2025, Aboud Khater pressed the accelerator of his pistachio green Toyota Land Cruiser, leading the last evacuation convoy from El Fasher. Smoke billowed from the stricken city as the sun rose, marking the vicious finale of an 18-month starvation siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Over two days, up to 10,000 civilians were massacred, with a further 40,000 unaccounted for, in what analysts describe as the fastest and largest killing spree this century.
A Doomed Defense and Chaotic Withdrawal
El Fasher, the historic capital of Sudan's Darfur region, was defended by a depleted army garrison and local joint forces, self-protection groups formed to shield residents from genocide. At 6 a.m., drones appeared, hunting Khater, the 53-year-old chief of El Fasher's joint forces. In a pickup ahead, Gen Emam Doud, grievously wounded, accepted his probable death. "I was shocked how intensely the RSF was hitting us. They were throwing everything at us: kamikaze drones, bombs," says Doud.
Khater's convoy of 40 vehicles raced across the desert plain, pursued by RSF armored columns. Their greatest trial lay ahead: the "pits of hell," a series of manmade trenches culminating in a five-meter-deep canyon. "No vehicle or human can get out. Everything trapped inside is killed by the RSF," says Doud. Western intelligence had modeled this chaotic withdrawal, making the killings at El Fasher one of the most explicitly anticipated mass atrocities ever.
International Warnings Sidelined
A Guardian investigation reveals that internal US and UK warnings were suppressed. US State Department intelligence assessments, which would have triggered obligations to save El Fasher, were buried. The UK seemingly abandoned the city, discarding reports predicting genocide and failing to update its intelligence apparatus throughout the 561-day siege. As fighting intensified, the UK removed Darfur's original genocide—where 300,000 were slaughtered by the RSF's Arab predecessors—from its list of recognized mass atrocities.
Fresh questions emerge for the RSF's principal backer, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which made extraordinary attempts to conceal its alleged involvement in El Fasher's bloody takeover. The UAE denies providing military support to the militia. Over October 26 and 27, 2025, analysts believe up to 10,000 people were massacred, with at least 40,000 others missing, according to Darfur's governor.
48 Hours of Unprecedented Ferocity
The speed and ferocity of the killings had not been seen since Rwanda's 1994 genocide. On October 26, at 3 a.m., Khater noted panic among troops retreating westward, signaling the fall of the army's last Darfur stronghold. Communications were down, leaving El Fasher isolated. RSF jamming technology grounded defensive drones, giving them control of the sky.
Inside the last functioning hospital's maternity ward, Dr Mustafa Ibrahim heard rockets slam into al-Saudi hospital as expectant mothers were coated with dust. "That moment I lost my soul," he says, describing how he witnessed a heavily pregnant woman and toddler killed while fleeing. RSF fighters targeted doctors, with over 460 massacred inside the hospital, including Ibrahim's room-mate.
At the university, enormous crowds congregated, only to be bombed by drones. "We saw hundreds of children being killed," says Doud. RSF fighters stormed dormitories, killing at least 500 civilians in one building. Ibrahim hid in an underground water tank with dozens of women and children, listening to screams and shouts of "Falangayat [slaves]."
Heroic Last Stand and Tragic End
Khater refused to evacuate without every civilian, telling his fighters, "I won't leave. I won't leave." As dusk approached, they burst out of the western gate, escorting children, the elderly, and injured. By 5:45 a.m. on October 27, the final convoy sped out, but RSF drones attacked, trapping vehicles in the trenches. "Everything exploded. It was very difficult, a lot of cars were hit," says Doud.
Khater miraculously navigated over the trench, but his vehicle was struck by a drone, leaving him unconscious and peppered with shrapnel. He died from blood loss after being rescued. Ibrahim, captured by the RSF, was beaten and ransomed, eventually freed after his father paid. Today, El Fasher is a ghost town, with UN investigators concluding the attack carried the "hallmarks of genocide."
Aftermath and Unanswered Questions
The international community's failure is stark. The UK's Joint Analysis of Conflict and Stability (Jacs) was not updated, and the US blocked assessments to protect a defense agreement with the UAE. "El Fasher represents a moral and political failure of the international system designed to prevent genocide," said Abdallah Abu Garda of the Darfur Diaspora Association. Survivors like Ibrahim now offer psychological support to 400 El Fasher orphans, dreaming of loved ones vanished in violence the world saw coming but turned away from.
