Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been trying to cover up mass killings in the city of el-Fasher by burying and burning bodies, a research team from Yale University says.
The RSF had drawn international condemnation amid reports of executions and crimes against humanity when its fighters captured the city in October.
Now, analysis of satellite images by Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) shows the RSF likely disposed of tens of thousands of bodies after seizing el-Fasher.
The RSF has not responded to the report, but its leader previously admitted his fighters had committed some violations in the city.
The HRL's report revealed that the RSF engaged in a systematic multi-week campaign to destroy evidence of its widespread mass killings and that this pattern of body disposal and destruction is ongoing.
The paramilitary group has been battling Sudan's regular army since April 2023 amid a brutal civil war.
The United Nations (UN) has described the conflict as the world's worst humanitarian disaster.
After 18 months of besieging el-Fasher, the RSF captured the city, pushing the army out of its last foothold in the vast Darfur region.
The HRL's monitoring indicated continued patterns of body disposal as the RSF attempts to erase evidence of massacres, with satellite imagery confirming clusters of activity outside the city, suggesting civilians were targeted as they fled.
Following international outcry, RSF leader Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo announced an investigation into violations by his soldiers during the capture of el-Fasher; however, the organization continues to deny accusations of ethnically motivated killings.
Around 250,000 people remain trapped in el-Fasher as the RSF consolidates power in western Sudan, having established a parallel government in Nyala. The civil war has displaced over 13 million people since it began.
