THE paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are making a “desperate attempt” to conceal mass killings in Darfur by burning bodies or burying them in mass graves, Sudanese medics said on Sunday.

The Sudan Doctors Network said that the RSF are collecting “hundreds of bodies” from the streets of el-Fasher, in Sudan’s western Darfur region, after their deadly takeover of the city on October 26.

But the medics insist the group’s crimes could not be “erased through concealment or burning.”

In a statement, the group said: “What happened in el-Fasher is not an isolated incident but rather another chapter in a full-fledged genocide carried out by the RSF, blatantly violating all international and religious norms that prohibit the mutilation of corpses and guarantee the dead the right to a dignified burial.”

More than 82,000 of el-Fasher’s population of 260,000 was forced to flee after the RSF seized the city, according to the International Organisation for Migration. But many residents are believed to still be trapped.

Since then there have been reports of mass killings, rape and torture.

The RSF, which has been fighting the Sudanese army for control of Sudan since April 2023, traces its origins to the predominantly Arab, government-backed militia known as the Janjaweed, which was accused of genocide in Darfur two decades ago.

Between 2003 and 2008, an estimated 300,000 people were killed, and nearly 2.7 million were displaced in campaigns of violence.

Sylvain Penicaud of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) spoke to civilians who fled el-Fasher for the town of Tawila and that said many of those fleeing said they were “targeted because of the colour of their skin.

“For me, the most terrifying part was [civilians] being hunted down while they were running for their lives, being attacked simply for being black.”

The Zaghawa, the dominant ethnic group in el-Fasher, has been fighting alongside the army since late 2023.

The group, which initially remained neutral when the war began, aligned with the military after the RSF carried out massacres against the Masalit tribe in West Darfur’s capital, el-Geneina, killing up to 15,000 people.

Hassan Osman, a university student from el-Fasher, said residents with darker skin, especially Zaghawa civilians, were subjected to “racial insults, humiliation, degradation and physical and psychological violence” as they fled.

“If your skin is light, they might let you go,” he said. “It’s purely ethnic.”