The capture of el-Fasher by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) marks the darkest moment yet in Sudan’s unravelling civil war. After 18 months under siege, the last army-held city in Darfur has fallen, completing the paramilitary group’s control of the vast western region. What began in April 2023 as a contest for power between two generals has now metastasized into one of the worst humanitarian disasters of this century, and the world, once again, has watched in silence.

For the Sudanese army, the withdrawal from el-Fasher was justified as an act to “save civilian lives.” But for the hundreds of thousands trapped in the city, there was no salvation. Satellite evidence and eyewitness accounts speak of mass killings and bodies left near defensive walls and roadsides, chilling echoes of the genocidal violence that scarred Darfur 20 years ago. Entire families have vanished; communication lines are severed;........

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