SUDAN’S paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are committing war crimes in the Darfur city of el-Fasher, Amnesty International said today.

The human rights group published a damning report hours after the United Arab Emirates-backed RSF agreed to a three month humanitarian truce “in response to international efforts.”

Sudan was plunged into open fighting in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military, which has the Saudi and Egyptian backing, and the RSF turned violent.

Both the military and the RSF had a hand in the October 2021 overthrow of Sudan’s people’s revolution, which had begun two-and-a-half years before.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE have all denied any involvement in the conflict.

Amnesty said that testimony it had gathered from 28 survivors described atrocities in el-Fasher ranging from the summary execution of unarmed men to the rape of girls and women.

Amnesty secretary-general Agnes Callamard said: “This persistent, widespread violence against civilians constitutes war crimes and may also constitute other crimes under international law.

“All those responsible must be held accountable for their actions.”

Amnesty’s report cites one survivor from el-Fasher who said that both she and her teenage daughter had been raped by RSF fighter as they attempted to flee the city. Her daughter later died as a result of the attack.

Another survivor said she had witnessed people being shot by RSF fighters while they tried to flee the area.

She said: “The RSF were killing people as if they were flies. It was a massacre. None of the people killed that I have seen were armed soldiers.”

International mediation has so far failed to produce a deal to end the proxy war.

The city of el-Fasher, the last major city that had remained outside RSF control, was seized at the end of October after bitter fighting against the military.

Last week, United Nations undersecretary for humanitarian affairs Tom Fletcher said el-Fasher had been transformed into a “crime scene” and those responsible must “face justice.”