Pile of bodies, 'blood' stains visible from space show scale of Sudan massacre

The Sudanese civil war has led to one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. Satellite imagery from October 27 shows blood on the streets and piles of bodies, revealing the horrific scale of atrocities. The pictures are from El Fasher city in North Darfur, which has been captured by the militia Rapid Support Forces (RSF). They were captured by the aeronautic company Airbus Defence and Space. Red stains on the ground and what resembles human bodies piled on top of each other can be seen from space. The images apparently show the aftermath of a massacre in Sudan's El-Fasher. The revelation was made in a report from the Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL). Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured the city recently, the last stronghold of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in North Darfur.

The Yale HRL report states that the satellite imagery coordinates pinpoint clusters in Daraja Oula, just 250 metres from Al Safiya mosque. This is the same place where a September RSF drone strike killed 78 people. The report quotes experts and analysts as saying that they saw at least five instances of "reddish earth discolouration" in the satellite images. They were all near objects measuring 1.3 to 2 metres, about the average size of human bodies. Earlier images from the scene do not show these features, hinting that large-scale killings and executions took place in the city.

The Sudan civil war

Yale HRL satellite imagery also confirms that RSF has captured El-Fasher's key military sites. This includes the SAF Sixth Division headquarters and 157th Artillery Brigade, with RSF vehicles and T-55 tanks deployed on October 27, clearly visible in the images. Sudan has been in the grips of civil war since April 2023. The Sudanese Armed Forces leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, have been engaged in a battle that has displaced thousands and led to several deaths. Social media and local reports state that civilians trying to escape were killed, while several others were executed. RSF has been accused of ethnic targeting in Darfur, with both sides being accused of carrying out war crimes.

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The US has also accused RSF of genocide, as they have been targeting non-Arab communities such as the Massalit. According to the UN, over 150,000 have been killed in Darfur and 12 million displaced. It has been termed the world's largest displacement crisis, with famine-like conditions staring 25 million people in the face.