Sudan's southwestern city of El Fasher, in the North Darfur region, has seen a population decline of more than 90 percent from last year's figures, Amnesty International noted in new findings Friday.
El Fasher was captured by the Emirati-backed, breakaway paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) one year ago, and now only 70,000 people remain from what humanitarian organisations and the Sudanese government said were upwards of a million displaced people seeking safety there last year.
"Unlawful killings, detention and torture... [and] surveillance" are "rife" in the city, Amnesty said.
Sudan's civil war has continued to escalate since April 2023, with no end in sight, given the Trump administration has not been keen on pressuring its ally, the UAE, to stop arming the RSF.
Amnesty said the RSF has "committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during its campaign" and that a "pervasive pall of fear hangs over El Fasher today".
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
To gather new testimony, Amnesty spent the last two months interviewing 25 civilians, including 19 residents and six humanitarian workers, about the conditions in El Fasher.
Of the residents, 17 had spent time in RSF detention centres, and 15 left El Fasher between July and August 2026.
"Torture is something which is permanent in any [RSF] detention. They executed people who tried to look at them… If you sleep a lot, they don’t like that; they will execute you. They ask, ‘You want to take a rest? We will give you permanent rest'," 29-year-old Modathir, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, told Amnesty.
He is from the Zaghawa ethnic group and said he ultimately managed to escape the prison.
A 38-year-old man named Hatim, of the Berti ethnic group, who had a serious shrapnel injury in his jaw, was detained by the RSF when he returned to El Fasher to retrieve personal belongings from his house in spring 2026.
He told Amnesty he was held in a school for about four months with some 300 people.
"You could not move freely; you had to stay there… [The RSF] beat me up two times I tried fleeing… including on my wounds.” On his third attempt, Hatim was able to escape.
Mamoun, a Zaghawa man who is 33 years old and whose name has also been changed, said his family had to pay a ransom to get him out.
"They take people out [of the cell] randomly; they accuse you of being with the Joint Forces or the military… And they beat you until you faint… Sometimes I was beaten four times a day… It just depends on their mood," he recounted.
No end in sight
The schools that served as detention centres typically held women, children, and some elderly and wounded, survivors said, and described high rates of malnutrition there, Amnesty found.
A 45-year-old Zaghawa woman, whom Amnesty has named Haram, said the Zaghawa people were regularly beaten.
"They called us falangayaat women," she added, referring to a slur that indicates slavery or servitude.
Amnesty called on the RSF to "immediately release" all those who have been arbitrarily detained, and "end torture and unlawful killings in detention and elsewhere," as well as the use of "forced labour, which is prohibited by international law".
The organisation said it reached out to the RSF on 9 October about its latest findings, but never heard back.
El Fasher residents told Amnesty that while a small number of humanitarian organisations were operating in the city again as of September 2026, the RSF closely monitored their movements and prevented residents from speaking freely to them.
"It seemed like everybody is watched very closely; they don’t give humanitarian workers any private space to talk… Everybody is terrorised," one resident recounted.
“There is no complete blockage of [humanitarian] access, but… when organizations are implementing activities [the RSF] will monitor implementation… There are no pictures, no interviews, no interactions of any kind," another resident said.
Amnesty reiterated its yearslong call for an "immediate ceasefire" and the "urgent deployment of an international force to protect civilians".
"All countries must also immediately stop providing arms and ammunition to all parties to the conflict in Sudan," it said. "In particular, all countries must cease arms transfers to the United Arab Emirates until it stops supplying weapons to RSF in violation of the UN embargo on Darfur. The UN Security Council must also expand the existing arms embargo on Darfur to the rest of the country."
While the Trump administration's African affairs envoy, Massad Boulos, appeared to prioritise a diplomatic solution earlier this year, there has been little to no known movement on that front since.
UAE Assistant Minister for Political Affairs Lana Nusseibeh has also thrown her hat into the ring to be the next United Nations secretary general, and her campaign is gaining traction.
According to the UN relief agency, more than 21 million people in Sudan face acute food and water shortages, out of a population of nearly 52 million.
An estimated 10 million people are internally displaced, with another four million having fled to nearby countries.
More than 150,000 people are believed to have been killed since a power-sharing coalition broke down in Sudan three and a half years ago.
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.