July 4, 2025 (GENEVA) – Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are carrying out a campaign of “mass atrocities” in North Darfur, systematically targeting the Zaghawa ethnic group for killings and persecution in what survivors fear is a prelude to “ethnic cleansing and genocide,” Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said in a report on Friday.
The report, “Besieged, Attacked, Starved,” links the violence to the Zaghawa community, forming the core of the Joint Forces militia that sided with the Sudanese army. While it states both sides have indiscriminately bombed civilians, the report details how RSF fighters identify and single out non-Arab groups for abuse.
MSF alleges RSF fighters use derogatory terms like “falangay” (slave) and “qurud” (monkeys) for the Zaghawa community. “We heard some of them speaking in their walkie-talkies saying: ‘wipe out all the Zaghawa, those falangay’,” one 70-year-old man was quoted as saying.
Identity has become a death sentence, according to numerous accounts stating that RSF fighters would ask for a person’s tribe and kill those found to be Zaghawa. “We asked his tribe, he said Zaghawa, and we killed him,” one person recounted being told by an Arab fighter allied with the RSF.
The report highlights a large-scale RSF ground assault on the Zamzam camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) on April 11, 2025. The attack killed hundreds of civilians and displaced over 400,000 people in under three weeks. During the assault, eleven staff members from the aid organization Relief International were killed inside a health clinic.
This violence occurs amid a “decimated health system,” where repeated attacks by both sides have made access to healthcare “near impossible”. MSF was forced to suspend its support for the Saudi Hospital in August 2024, which was the last functioning public hospital with surgical capacity in El Fasher.
Civilians are also being deprived of food and water through a near-total RSF blockade and systematic attacks on markets, the report said. MSF stated that starvation may have been used as a method of warfare. A March 2025 assessment in El Fasher found that about 38% of children under five suffered from acute malnutrition, more than double the emergency threshold.
Those who flee face extreme violence, with men being abducted or executed and women subjected to large-scale sexual violence by the RSF on the roads .
MSF called on the RSF to “immediately stop ethnic violence,” lift the siege of El Fasher, and for all warring parties to protect civilians. The aid group also urged the United Nations to ensure the implementation of UNSC Resolution 2736 and to launch a massive humanitarian response.