The Unfolding Horror in El-Fasher: A Cry for Attention Amidst Sudan’s Forgotten War
In December 2025, as reports of widespread massacres emanated from El-Fasher, the besieged city in Sudan’s western Darfur region, a congressional briefing convened in Washington, D.C., sought to bring international attention to the escalating crisis. Among the experts invited to share their insights was Nadia Taha, a journalist born and raised in El-Fasher, whose firsthand account painted a harrowing picture of the unfolding tragedy. Her testimony underscored not only the immense human cost of the conflict but also the profound challenges faced by those striving to report it to a world increasingly distracted and disengaged.
The Fall of El-Fasher and the Genesis of Atrocities
Taha began her address by vividly describing El-Fasher, its vibrant society, and rich culture, before recounting how the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the city on October 26, 2025, following a nearly two-year siege. This takeover marked a catastrophic turning point. Once inside, the RSF reportedly targeted non-Arab residents with a systematic brutality reminiscent of past genocides in Darfur. Reports detailed atrocities ranging from torture and rape to the killing of tens of thousands, including many of Taha’s own relatives and neighbors. Disturbingly, perpetrators brazenly boasted about their acts in videos posted on social media, further highlighting the impunity with which these crimes were committed.
As she spoke, the weight of her city’s suffering became palpable, and Taha choked back tears. Her frustration was evident as she revealed her recent layoff from Voice of America (VOA), an arm of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM). This dismissal followed an executive order issued by Donald Trump, then-President, aiming for the near-elimination of USAGM. “I feel like my hands are tied,” Taha lamented, articulating the helplessness felt by many journalists and human rights advocates caught between a devastating conflict and dwindling international support for independent media.
Sudan’s Deepening Humanitarian Catastrophe: A "Forgotten War"
The conflict in Sudan, often labeled "the forgotten war" due to its minimal global media coverage, represents the world’s largest humanitarian crisis today. Since fighting erupted in April 2023, it has displaced an estimated twelve million people, both internally and across borders. Conservative estimates place the death toll as high as four hundred thousand, though accurate figures are difficult to ascertain given the chaos and lack of access. This immense human suffering has made ground reporting nearly impossible across vast swathes of the country, exacerbating the information vacuum.
The humanitarian crisis has coincided with America’s pronounced inward turn, characterized by significant cuts to institutions vital for global awareness and aid. The Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the administrative leave of over a thousand USAGM employees severely impacted the capacity for international reporting. Furthermore, layoffs in February at the Washington Post disproportionately affected foreign coverage, signaling a broader trend in mainstream media of reducing resources for international news. Taha’s emotional plea, "Sometimes I just want to scream and cry. I see a lot of stuff not covered the way I want it to be done," encapsulates the despair of those watching their country burn with little external attention.
The Hallmarks of Genocide: Evidence from El-Fasher
The fall of El-Fasher and its aftermath are not isolated incidents but rather another brutal episode in the ongoing power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF. This conflict, which ignited in April 2023, has plunged Sudan into unprecedented violence. A United Nations fact-finding mission in February 2026 confirmed that the atrocities committed by RSF fighters in El-Fasher bore "the hallmarks of genocide," a chilling echo of the early 2000s Darfur conflict.
In the absence of traditional ground reporting, open-source intelligence (OSINT)—derived from publicly available material like social media posts, geolocation data, and satellite imagery—has proven crucial. The Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, for instance, provided compelling evidence of mass killings. Its first report, published in October 2025, garnered global media attention by revealing "objects consistent with the size of human bodies on the ground near RSF vehicles, including at least five instances of reddish earth discoloration." Shaina Lewis, a Sudan specialist and adviser for Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities (PAEMA), noted the impact: "The fact that blood was visible from space, that was a moment that captured international headlines. I think El-Fasher was a breakthrough moment for all of the wrong reasons. We saw this massive uptick in attention that we had been calling for for the entirety of the war." This underscores the desperate need for any form of verifiable information to penetrate the global consciousness.
Historical Roots of the Conflict: From Janjaweed to RSF
El-Fasher’s significance lies in its historical role as the capital of Darfur, a region scarred by previous conflicts. In the early 2000s, the Janjaweed militia, initially established by the Sudanese government’s security apparatus, waged a brutal campaign against Black, non-Arab communities accused of supporting rebel groups. This period saw approximately three hundred thousand deaths from fighting, hunger, and disease, prompting human rights activists to also label it a genocide.
As a reward for their actions, Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s then-dictator, granted the Janjaweed control over lucrative gold mines in Darfur and elevated their status within the military, partly to shield himself from political rivals. The Janjaweed, under the leadership of Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as "Hemedti," were rebranded as the Rapid Support Forces. Their transformation continued, and in 2015, Bashir deployed them as mercenaries to Yemen to fight Houthi rebels alongside Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates (UAE) forces, further entrenching their power and resources.
A Revolution Derailed: The Path to War
In April 2019, four months of sustained pro-democracy protests culminated in the overthrow of Bashir’s thirty-year dictatorship, ushering in a period of cautious optimism. A civilian-military coalition formed a transitional government, promising a path to democratic elections. However, this fragile transition was derailed in October 2021 when the military orchestrated a coup, sidelining civilian leadership and intensifying the internal rivalry between the RSF and army leaders linked to the old regime.
The simmering tensions erupted into full-scale conflict on April 15, 2023, with fighting initially concentrating in the capital, Khartoum, before spreading rapidly across the country, including Darfur. Since then, Sudan has been cleaved into spheres of influence: the Sudanese army largely controls the east, north, and center, while the RSF maintains a strong grip on the south and west.
By May 2024, El-Fasher remained the last major city in Darfur under the authority of the Sudanese army. For eighteen grueling months, RSF fighters laid siege to the city, digging defensive ditches, launching mortar attacks on military and residential areas, and strangling supply lines. Locals endured starvation, and tens of thousands fled, seeking refuge from the relentless violence.
The Perilous State of Journalism in Conflict Zones
During the siege, a handful of courageous local journalists stayed behind, striving to report on the unfolding tragedy. However, their efforts were met with escalating dangers. In October 2025, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that thirteen journalists and media workers, described as "among the last sources of independent information from the besieged city," had "gone missing under a communication blackout." At least two, including Muammar Ibrahim, a stringer for Al Jazeera Mubasher, were abducted by the RSF. Ibrahim was recognized, captured, and detained by RSF fighters on October 26 as he attempted to escape El-Fasher.
A chilling video posted on social media showed an RSF officer accusing Ibrahim of bias, specifically for using terms like "militia" and "Janjaweed" in Facebook posts—characterizations the RSF vehemently rejects as it attempts to portray itself as a legitimate political and military force. A visibly distraught yet composed Ibrahim responded, "I confirm I used these descriptions in past social media posts, but not in my reporting to official and media outlets." This incident highlights the extreme pressures and threats faced by journalists attempting to provide independent coverage.
Beyond direct combat, covering El-Fasher and Sudan at large presents myriad obstacles: persistent electricity and internet outages, armed parties denying media access to survivors, widespread media funding cuts, and the global news cycle’s focus on other competing crises. Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, emphasized the complementary role of OSINT: "We can go places journalists can’t go. We don’t replace witness testimony, but we can operate when there is no ground access."
Sudanese Journalists: A Beacon of Resilience
Despite the overwhelming challenges, Sudanese journalists intimately connected to El-Fasher have been at the forefront of ensuring the world knows what is happening. Nadia Taha’s career, spanning over a decade, exemplifies this dedication. Starting in 2010 with the USAID-funded Sudan Radio Service (later Eye Radio) in Nairobi, she became a host and Darfur specialist, reporting in Arabic and Zaghawa, the language of the Zaghawa ethnic group. Her work with independent media outlets like Ayin Network and Nuba Reports involved training journalists to produce short documentary videos in underreported conflict zones across Sudan.
A 2016 Atlas Corps fellowship brought Taha to Washington, D.C., leading to an internship and subsequent full-time employment with VOA, making her, to her knowledge, the first Sudanese woman and Darfurian journalist to work for the organization. "I started bringing new voices to Voice of America, interviewing IDPs, people from El-Fasher, experts on Darfur," she recounted, highlighting her commitment to amplifying local voices.
Around the same time, Adam Mahdi, another journalist, co-founded Darfur 24 with Mohamed Elfatih, a bilingual Arabic and English online platform. Initially based in Nyala, South Darfur, their goal was to "cover events that were not being covered in Darfur, places far from the big cities, population movements, tribal conflicts, shortages in services and development." Darfur 24 rapidly expanded, employing five reporters across Darfur’s five states, including video journalists in major cities like El-Fasher, Nyala, and El-Geneina, and later extending coverage to Sudanese refugees in Chad and South Sudan.
However, the 2023 war forced Mahdi and many Darfur 24 reporters to relocate. "It became impossible for them to live or work in an area," Mahdi explained. "Our reporters were always in army areas. RSF never let anyone who didn’t support them work freely." One reporter’s house was struck by a mortar, underscoring the constant threat. In response, Mahdi and Elfatih adapted, training non-journalists, including volunteers, activists, and human rights observers, to provide updates.
Hafiz Haroun, an El-Fasher native, had presciently followed the escalating tensions and arms race between the SAF and RSF even before the war erupted, recognizing that "it was clear a war was on its way." After Bashir’s fall in 2019, Haroun reported for Al-Tayyar, an independent newspaper in Khartoum, inspired by the hopeful democratic transition. His arrest by security forces in 2021 led him to relocate to Nairobi with support from Frontline Defenders, an international human rights group, where he began freelancing for outlets such as Ayin, Le Monde, and the Washington Post. The conflict hit home personally when, while working on a BBC documentary in 2024, he learned via Facebook posts of his younger brother’s death in El-Fasher, followed weeks later by the killing of another brother. "They died defending our neighborhood against the RSF," Haroun shared, illustrating the intimate connection many Sudanese journalists have to the conflict.
Reporting from Afar: The Role of Satellite Communications and Advocacy
From Nairobi, Haroun contributed to reports on the fighting around El-Fasher for publications like the Post, covering the siege, starvation, rape, and kidnappings. "Usually with WhatsApp, but sometimes it was hard to get in contact when Starlink was down," he said, describing the reliance on unstable communication channels. He sometimes resorted to satellite phones to contact and interview community and military leaders, highlighting the extraordinary measures required to gather information.
International journalists, grappling with their own access limitations, frequently turned to advocacy groups like PAEMA for contacts on the ground. Shaina Lewis of PAEMA explained, "Journalists often get in contact with me to connect with Sudanese civilians." Through a network of civil society activists, she facilitated interviews with individuals who, for security reasons, "would record voice notes somewhere, then send them at a Starlink access point." This intricate web of informal communication became a lifeline for global reporting.
Darfur 24‘s local photographer had fled El-Fasher in mid-2025, but one writer remained until "it became too dangerous, along with food and water shortages, we forced them to evacuate," Mahdi recounted. When RSF fighters finally stormed El-Fasher, the city was plunged into a communication blackout. "On the day of the fall there was absolutely no access, and I am someone who has wide connections in El-Fasher," Haroun said. For an entire day, he couldn’t reach anyone, fearing his sources had perished. He turned to satellite imagery and even contacts within the RSF. On October 27, he finally connected with people who had reached Taweela, a town near the Sudan-Chad border, who relayed the horrific events. "It was difficult. I had an interview with people I knew, including childhood friends," he recalled. "That was one of the most painful stories."
The Erosion of Independent Reporting and the Rise of Propaganda
Since the RSF takeover, Darfur 24 has been unable to report independently from El-Fasher. With Starlink internet service no longer available, connecting with sources is nearly impossible. Correspondents now focus on survivors who have fled, relying on RSF-supportive social media posts or video reports from international humanitarian delegations to cover the city itself. "There is no independent reporting from the ground, and no verifying of sources," Mahdi confirmed, underscoring the critical information void.
This vacuum allows for missed stories and potential manipulation. Taha expressed her horror when an RSF commander, Abu Lulu, brazenly claimed on TikTok to have killed two hundred people—and then vowed to "start from zero" next time. She was frustrated that no one interviewed the victims’ families or followed up on RSF claims that he was being investigated.
Adding to the complexity, the coverage by some outlets has drawn considerable controversy. Tsabih Mubarak of Sky News Arabia, based in the UAE and reportedly married to a senior official in an RSF-backed parallel government, traveled to El-Fasher days after the RSF takeover. She faced strong criticism for allegedly whitewashing the extent of the atrocities and for theatrical selfies with children and a photo hugging a female RSF commander, raising concerns about journalistic impartiality and propaganda.
Lingering Hope and Persistent Challenges
Amidst the grim realities, glimmers of hope persist. Taha, who co-founded Sudan Action Hub, an advocacy and humanitarian group, in February, was encouraged when a federal judge ordered the reinstatement of VOA workers placed on administrative leave. Though the ruling did not immediately include Taha, who worked as a contractor, she remains hopeful, "We are still waiting for clarification from the lawyers."
However, the recent mass layoffs at the Washington Post, which significantly impacted foreign bureaus, have left freelancers like Haroun in limbo. "The Post was interested in regular reports," Haroun stated. "Work seems to be frozen. I don’t know what is going to happen." This uncertainty highlights the precarious position of journalists covering underreported conflicts when international media organizations retrench.
Reliable independent news from El-Fasher remains exceedingly difficult to obtain. The RSF now controls Starlink stations, and the few residents who remain are too terrified to speak out. The latest information largely originates from recent escapees or RSF-sponsored propaganda, creating a distorted narrative. Lewis’s concluding sentiment, "El-Fasher was the first time we saw the international media come close to what was warranted. Too little, too late," serves as a poignant reminder of the urgent need for sustained, independent, and comprehensive coverage of Sudan’s forgotten war. The enduring struggle for truth in El-Fasher reflects a broader crisis in global journalism and international engagement, leaving countless victims voiceless and their stories untold.
