Our Task Involves Solely Killing' - How The Sudanese Vicious Paramilitary Group Carried out a Mass Killing
Caution: This Account Includes Explicit Accounts of Executions.
Combatants chuckle as they travel on the bed of a pick-up truck, hurrying past a row of multiple dead bodies and heading facing the sinking African sun.
"See such effort. See this act of genocide," a fighter exclaims.
He smiles as he turns the camera on his own face and his companion combatants, their Rapid Support Forces badges visible: "They are all going to be killed this way."
The combatants are celebrating a atrocity that relief organizations believe resulted in the deaths of over thousands of individuals in the African urban center of the Darfur city last month.
A City Cut Off from the Outside
Following their control of the urban area under siege for almost 24 months, from August the RSF moved to consolidate its position and restrict the remaining residents.
Satellite images show that forces commenced to construct a massive earth barrier - a raised earthen wall - encircling the edges of al-Fashir, sealing off entry points and halting relief supplies.
As the siege intensified, seventy-eight civilians were killed in an militia attack on a place of worship on 19 September, while the international organization said fifty-three additional were killed in aerial and cannon strikes on a refugee settlement in the autumn.
Graphic Recording Reveals Unarmed Individuals Shot
By sunrise on 26 October the militia defeated the last government strongholds and seized the primary compound in the city, the headquarters of the 6th Infantry Division, as the government forces retreated.
Perhaps the most disturbing footage to emerge and analysed showed the consequences of a atrocity at a educational facility on the west of the city, where scores corpses were visible strewn throughout the ground.
An elderly man dressed in a traditional garment sat isolated surrounded by the corpses. He turned to look as a combatant carrying with a firearm walked along the staircase facing the victim. Raising his firearm, the shooter fired a single shot at the individual, who collapsed to the ground motionless.
"How come is this individual even breathing," a militiaman exclaimed. "Kill this one."
Satellite images captured on October 26th seemed to confirm that shootings were additionally carried out on the roads of the city, according to a report published by the university analysis team.
One eyewitness who communicated reported he had witnessed "many of our family members getting killed - these individuals were collected in one place and each one eliminated."
Militia Leaders Attempt to Implement Public Relations
In the days that followed the atrocity, militia commander conceded that his troops had committed "atrocities" and announced the occurrences would be examined.
Included among arrested was subsequent to a analysis documenting his killings. Deliberately staged and modified video published on the RSF's official social media platform show the commander being led into a cell at a detention facility on the perimeter of el-Fasher.
Simultaneously, the militia and affiliated online channels began attempting to reframe the account.
Posts depicting its fighters handing out supplies to residents were circulated by several individuals, while the militia's public relations unit released several recordings purporting to demonstrate the proper treatment of military captives.
Despite the digital initiative being deployed by the militia, their actions in al-Fashir have generated international outrage.