Inside the secret battle to document RSF abuses in Sudan

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The large region of western Sudan is controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces since 2023, and have been accused of committing these atrocities. Opposition is not welcome in RSF-held territory, but working quietly to document the abuses are secret monitoring teams working with Sudan’s National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), gathering evidence in the hope that it will eventually be used to get justice for civilian victims. Operating under extreme conditions, the monitoring teams carry small mobile phones to document what they can. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Rahmatullah Mohammedin Abakar, director of the NCHR’s Darfur division, revealed the staggering challenges his field teams face. He stated that despite severe security threats, teams had continued their efforts driven by the NCHR’s institutional commitment and its mandate to monitor the human rights situation in Sudan. Operating covertly and relying on a network of locals using secure communication methods to avoid detection, the field teams say they have documented a systematic pattern of ethnic-based violence targeting civilians in every city under RSF control. The scale of the atrocities is staggering. Abakar said that the RSF has carried out mass executions that amount to genocide, adding that the NCHR possesses reliable reports of mass graves in both el-Geneina and el-Fasher, cities taken by the RSF in 2023 and 2025, respectively. The NCHR has also documented nearly 4,000 cases of sexual violence across Darfur, with 20 percent of the victims being girls under the age of 18. This aligns with a June 2026 report by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which highlighted the unprecedented brutality and scale of conflict-related sexual violence in Sudan. The grassroots evidence gathered by the NCHR’s secret monitors closely mirrors the findings of other recent international investigations. A recent UN fact-finding mission concluded that the RSF’s systematic campaign of violence during and after its siege of el-Fasher amounted to genocide. The UN probe documented mass killings, gang rapes, and the intentional starvation of civilians as part of a deliberate policy. Investigators reported accounts of survivors being raped in rooms where the bodies of recently killed civilians, including their own family members, still lay on the floor. Amnesty International has also accused the RSF of committing crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in el-Fasher between early 2024 and October 2025. During its prolonged siege of the city, the RSF severely restricted humanitarian aid, creating a famine that forced desperate residents to eat animal feed to survive. Beyond the killings and sexual violence, arbitrary detention remains a critical crisis. Abakar said that the RSF is currently holding 1,480 civilians in el-Fasher alone, including 446 children and 360 women, scattered across various detention centres in the city. The situation is even more dire in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur. Abakar revealed that approximately 10,000 detainees are being held in the city’s Daqris prison, 9,000 of them women. Abakar demanded the immediate release of the detainees in accordance with international protocols for armed conflicts, stressing that holding civilians without trial is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. The conflict in Sudan, which erupted in April 2023, has already killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 14 million people. Despite recent military advances by the Sudanese Armed Forces and its allies in West Darfur, the RSF continues to be accused of committing atrocities in its remaining strongholds – claims it says are “manufactured”. Abakar said that as the SAF and its allies get closer to el-Geneina, they are witnessing evidence of human rights abuses in the villages they pass through. The human rights official said that the apparent continuation of crimes raised serious questions about the efficacy of global accountability mechanisms when there is no real deterrent stopping the RSF. NCHR field teams face immense hurdles in their race to document these crimes. Abakar highlighted extreme difficulties in accessing violation sites and detention centres due to the RSF’s territorial control, alongside a lack of cooperation from the paramilitary group and its allied militias. Furthermore, he said, the active conflict obstructs evidence gathering and makes witness protection nearly impossible. Despite severe resource shortages, the documentation work carried out by the human rights monitors is vital for future prosecutions. Abdul Nasser Salem, a security and crisis management expert and director of the East Africa programme at the Sweden-based Fox Research Center, told Al Jazeera that the abuses present a profound challenge to international humanitarian law. Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, all parties to a conflict are bound to respect the right to life and are prohibited from carrying out extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary detention, and assaults on human dignity. Salem pointed out that the targeting of ethnic groups, mass killings, widespread sexual violence, and unlawful detentions likely constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. He added that the field documentation carried out by the NCHR will form the cornerstone of any future judicial process, whether national or international, warning that continued impunity not only strips victims of their rights but undermines global faith in the rule of law. Abakar echoed the sentiment, calling on the international community to protect human rights teams on the ground and support their documentation efforts. Without genuine accountability, he warned, civilians will remain trapped in an endless cycle of violence. Al Jazeera attempted to contact the Rapid Support Forces for comment regarding these documented abuses, but received no response by the time of publication. The paramilitary group has previously denied targeting civilians and promised to hold any violators within its ranks accountable. 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