'Our Mission Is Exclusively Executing' - How Sudan's Brutal Paramilitary Group Perpetrated a Massacre

Fighters laugh as they move on the back of a pick-up truck, speeding alongside a row of multiple dead bodies and moving facing the setting African sunset.

"Observe this extensive accomplishment. Observe this act of genocide," a combatant shouts.

The fighter grins as he turns the camera on his own face and his fellow militiamen, their RSF insignia clearly shown: "The victims are all going to be killed this way."

These individuals are celebrating a mass killing that aid workers fear killed more than 2,000 people in the African metropolis of the Darfur city in recent weeks.

A City Isolated from the Outside

Following their control of the city under siege for almost 24 months, from the summer the paramilitary force advanced to consolidate its control and restrict the leftover inhabitants.

Space-based imagery demonstrate that troops started to erect a massive sand wall - a elevated earthen wall - encircling the edges of al-Fashir, blocking access routes and preventing humanitarian assistance.

As the siege escalated, seventy-eight people were slain in an paramilitary strike on a mosque on 19 September, while the United Nations said 53 further were murdered in unmanned aircraft and cannon attacks on a makeshift community in the autumn.

Disturbing Recording Shows Unarmed Civilians Gunned Down

In the early morning on 26 October the paramilitary force conquered the final military defenses and seized the main compound in the community, the main facility of the Army Division, as the government forces retreated.

One of the most graphic recordings to surface and analysed showed the results of a atrocity at a campus structure on the west of the urban area, where numerous lifeless forms were visible strewn across the floor.

A senior man clad in a white tunic remained isolated amid the bodies. He turned to glance as a combatant armed with a rifle moved down the staircase in the direction of the victim. pointing his weapon, the shooter discharged a single round at the victim, who collapsed to the ground lifeless.

"How come is this person yet living," one combatant exclaimed. "Execute him."

Space-based imagery taken on late October appeared to substantiate that shootings were furthermore conducted on the thoroughfares of al-Fashir, according to a analysis issued by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab.

One observer who communicated reported the individual had witnessed "many of our relatives being massacred - these individuals were gathered in a single location and all murdered."

RSF Commanders Seek to Carry Out Damage Control

During the period that came after the killings, militia chief acknowledged that his troops had committed "wrongdoings" and stated the occurrences would be examined.

Among those arrested was after a report recording his murders. Meticulously staged and produced recording published on the RSF's formal Telegram account reveal the commander being taken into a detention area at a detention facility on the edges of al-Fashir.

Meanwhile, the paramilitary force and associated online profiles began trying to reshape the narrative.

Content showing its combatants distributing aid to inhabitants were circulated by several accounts, while the force's media office published multiple recordings purporting to demonstrate the proper management of army detainees.

Despite the digital campaign being used by the RSF, their actions in al-Fashir have generated international anger.