More than 70 civilians killed in attack on mosque in Darfur’s el-Fasher

Civilians are bearing the brunt as Sudan‘s vicious civil war extends and intensifies, the United Nations has warned, on the same day that dozens were killed in an attack in Darfur.

More than 70 people were killed when paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out a drone strike on a mosque in el-Fasher on Friday, Sudan’s Sovereignty Council and local rescuers said.

The paramilitary group has laid siege to the city, which is the capital of North Darfur state, since the early days of the conflict.

“The drone attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the mosque in the early hours of Friday in the city of el-Fasher made it one of the bloodiest days in the city since the RSF started its siege in May last year,” said media’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Sudan’s capital Khartoum.

“El-Fasher is the last remaining major army stronghold in the region and the RSF has been carrying out drone attacks and artillery strikes, trying to target military positions and to try to capture the military base in the city … As a result of the repeated strikes by the RSF, civilian facilities have been hit, such as hospitals, schools, and displacement centres,” she added.

The Abu Shouk Emergency Response Room, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating relief across Sudan, said that “bodies were retrieved from the rubble of the mosque” after the attack, while residents told the AFP news agency they were combing through the wreckage to find and bury the dead.

The Resistance Committees in el-Fasher, a group comprised of local citizens from the community that includes human rights activists who track abuses, posted a video online reportedly showing parts of the mosque reduced to rubble with several bodies scattered on the site, now filled with debris.

The Sudan Doctors’ Network NGO labelled the attack a “heinous crime” against unarmed civilians that showed the RSF’s “blatant disregard for humanitarian and religious values and international law”.

‘War crimes’ being committed

Friday’s attack is the latest bout of violence in a civil war entering its third year between the Sudanese army and RSF.

In a report released on Friday, the UN’s Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said that civilian deaths and ethnic violence rose significantly as the war passed its two-year anniversary during the first half of 2025.

The rate of civilian deaths across Sudan has increased, the report says, with 3,384 civilians dying in the first six months of the year, a figure equalling 80 percent of the 4,238 civilian deaths throughout the whole of 2024.

“Sudan’s conflict is a forgotten one, and I hope that my office’s report puts the spotlight on this disastrous situation where atrocity crimes, including war crimes, are being committed,” OHCHR chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

#Sudan crisis deepens amid rising civilian casualties, worsening ethnic violence & humanitarian situation, finds @UNHumanRights report.

States must face grim reality of what has now evolved into a wider protection crisis & use their influence to end this conflict.

Many more… pic.twitter.com/c7OOcLUgdH

— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) September 19, 2025

“Several trends remained consistent during the first half of 2025: a continued pervasiveness of sexual violence, indiscriminate attacks, and the widespread use of retaliatory violence against civilians, particularly on an ethnic basis, targeting individuals accused of ‘collaboration’ with opposing parties,” said the report.

New trends include the use of drones, including in attacks on civilian sites and in Sudan’s north and east, which until now have been largely spared by the war, it said.

“The increasing ethnicisation of the conflict, which builds on longstanding discrimination and inequalities, poses grave risks for longer-term stability and social cohesion within the country,” said Turk.

“Many more lives will be lost without urgent action to protect civilians and without the rapid and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid.”

Since April 2023, Sudan’s war has killed tens of thousands and displaced some 12 million people. The UN has described it as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with famine prevalent in parts of Darfur and southern Sudan.

The war has, in effect, split the country, with the army holding the north, east and centre, while the RSF dominates parts of the south and nearly all of the western Darfur region.

Efforts by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates to broker a ceasefire between the warring parties have so far failed.