The Guardian: Exceptional Brutality — RSF Pursue Long-Term Starvation Strategy in Sudan

Sudan Events – Agencies

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan have adopted a long-term starvation strategy to achieve their objectives in the ongoing conflict across the five Darfur states, a war that has raged since 2003 and has killed and displaced hundreds of thousands from their villages and communities.

This was reported in an investigation published by the British newspaper The Guardian, prepared by Kaamil Ahmed, a British journalist and global development correspondent for the paper, and Alex Clark, a data and interactive journalism specialist at the same outlet.

The report cites experts who say data from sensors and satellite imagery reveal that attacks on agricultural communities by RSF fighters were aimed at preventing villages from producing food.

“They Burned Everything”

The report highlights the fate of the village of Amar Jadid in Darfur, Sudan. The surrounding fields once fed an entire region, but armed fighters arrived and burned everything.

Between March and June 2024, the report states that RSF forces attacked the village seven times. New evidence suggests these assaults were calculated to destroy the area’s food system, prompting experts to call for the actions to be classified as a war crime intended to starve civilians, while warning that such tactics could be repeated.

Families in Amar Jadid relied on their farms, cultivating staple crops such as sorghum and millet that sustained both the villagers and the nearby city of El Fasher, about 32 kilometers away.

However, since the early 2000s, the report says these families have faced violence from the Janjaweed, a militia drawn from “Arab pastoralist communities” competing with non-Arab farming communities for land. About 300,000 people were killed in government-backed attacks.

Eyes Turn Toward El Fasher

According to the report, the violence never truly ceased, yet the community endured and continued harvesting.

Journalists supported their findings with images of Amar Jadid by the summer of 2024. The ground where homes once stood had turned black and charred, scarred by fire, while farmland dried up after being abandoned.

That summer, the RSF controlled most of Darfur and turned its focus toward El Fasher.

Researchers at the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale University identified 41 farming communities in the region that were attacked between March and June 2024. Experts believe these assaults were part of a plan to dismantle the local food supply chain before the siege of El Fasher, which began in late April 2024 and lasted 18 months, ending in October 2025. According to the report, the strategy proved effective.

Agricultural Activity Halted

By September 2024, residents had abandoned villages that had survived decades of tension with pastoral communities, and agricultural activity stopped. Satellite images show wild vegetation growing randomly over deserted homes and farmland.

Experts who spoke to The Guardian said the tactics used against farmers indicate the RSF committed a war crime by using starvation as a method of warfare against populations already facing increasing hunger—populations that would soon be declared to be suffering from famine.

Evidence of War Crimes

Legal experts argued in a new analysis published Tuesday, March 10, that there is strong evidence the RSF committed a war crime by depriving residents of North Darfur of the means to produce food. They called for the findings of the Humanitarian Research Lab to be used as evidence in international courts.

The Guardian quoted Tom Dannenbaum, a professor at Stanford Law School and a leading expert on the use of starvation in war, as saying that the destruction of villages, agricultural equipment, and infrastructure provides compelling evidence of a “starvation strategy” against populations already suffering from food insecurity due to the conflict.

Dannenbaum, who co-authored the analysis with Oona Hathaway, a professor at Yale Law School, said:
“People were on the brink of famine, and the essential means for their survival were being destroyed.”

He added that the issue went beyond attacks on villages. The deliberate destruction of livestock enclosures, combined with the forced displacement of farmers, led to a sharp decline in agricultural activity—indicating a deliberate attempt to prevent villages from producing food.

A Breakthrough in Evidence

Dannenbaum and Hathaway believe the Humanitarian Research Lab’s research represents a breakthrough in efforts to prove the use of starvation as a strategy, due to its innovative use of remote-sensing technology. They also believe similar methods could be used to investigate potential war crimes in places such as Gaza and Ethiopia.

Hathaway said the findings demonstrate “extraordinary cruelty and the real horrors people were facing.” She added that the report offers a uniquely precise analysis over time, documenting exactly what was targeted—far beyond general knowledge about the fighting—and at a level that could be presented in court for criminal prosecution.

Ongoing International Investigations

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has been investigating genocide allegations in Darfur since the early 2000s and has called for evidence related to recent violence, including the RSF takeover of El Geneina in West Darfur in June 2023. During that assault, RSF fighters imposed a months-long siege that killed tens of thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands from the Masalit community.

The UN Human Rights Council has also been documenting rights violations throughout the war. In a report last month, it said the RSF attack on El Fasher last year bore “hallmarks of genocide,” including a siege that imposed conditions designed to destroy non-Arab communities such as the Zaghawa and Fur.

Investigations have also examined what has been described as a “genocidal assault” on Zamzam camp in April 2025, which at the time was Sudan’s largest displacement camp, sheltering around 700,000 people just south of El Fasher.

Satellite Evidence and Witness Testimony

Researchers from the Humanitarian Research Lab used sensors capable of detecting fires remotely, along with satellite imagery, to monitor attacks on the 41 villages. They found that the number of fires increased by 20% to 40% during the period studied.

A quarter of these villages were attacked more than once, and after the assaults, 68% showed no signs of a return to normal life. Researchers also detected vehicles consistent with those used by RSF fighters near sites of violence.

Among those unable to return home was Yasser Abdel Latif, a teacher from the village of Jaghmar, located three kilometers south of Amar Jadid.

Before the war, he taught in El Fasher, but returned to his village to help his family farm while waiting for the fighting to end.

Men on camels frequently attacked the village, often accompanied by armed fighters in trucks who intimidated anyone considering resistance.

One day in March 2024, the situation escalated. Abdel Latif saw smoke rising from neighboring villages and heard reports that residents of Amar Jadid had fled. By afternoon, RSF fighters had reached Jaghmar.

“We heard gunfire and everyone started running. No one understood what was happening,” he said.

Abdel Latif witnessed fighters kill two people—one who tried to defend his home and another who was searching for his family. The raid lasted until sunset before the attackers moved on to the next village.

But they returned later that night while villagers were burying their dead, forcing them to flee to the village of Golo, where displaced people from Amar Jadid and nearby communities had already gathered.

“The next day they began burning Amar Jadid, Jaghmar, and many other villages,” he said.

Deliberate Planning

The attacks on villages began only months before the siege of El Fasher. Researchers believe this was part of a strategy to cut the city off from food-producing areas.

Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab, said:
“They uprooted El Fasher’s breadbasket as a deliberate strategy to starve the city.”

During the 18-month siege of El Fasher, RSF forces blocked food, water, and medical supplies from entering the city and constructed an earthen barrier stretching at least 31 kilometers to physically prevent civilians from leaving.

Throughout the war, the RSF imposed prolonged sieges on cities with large non-Arab populations such as El Geneina and El Fasher before eventually seizing them militarily.

Siege Tactics Continue

Although the RSF now controls all major cities in Darfur, its siege tactics have also been used in battles against the Sudanese army elsewhere, with recent fighting concentrated in the neighboring Kordofan region.

Like Darfur, Kordofan is resource-rich, containing supplies of gold, oil, and gum arabic—a key ingredient in cosmetics and soft drinks, of which Sudan provides about 80% of global supply.

The region also includes the city of Kadugli, which, along with El Fasher, has been declared famine-stricken. Prices of staple foods such as sorghum have risen by 1,000% compared with pre-war levels.

Kordofan and Blue Nile

In February, the Sudanese army announced it had broken the siege of Kadugli, which had prevented aid trucks from reaching the city. However, violence continues, and there are fears the RSF may attempt to reimpose siege conditions.

On February 20, a convoy of aid trucks that had been waiting for weeks to enter the city was struck by a drone, killing four people.

Hunger is also rising in Blue Nile State in southeastern Sudan, where farmers have been unable to reach their land due to RSF attacks, leaving crops unharvested, according to the advocacy group Avaaz, which reported that flour prices rose 43% in January.

Warning of Future Atrocities

Raymond said the Humanitarian Research Lab’s work provides evidence that the RSF is using starvation as a weapon of war. Unless the group is investigated and held accountable, he warned, other communities could face the same fate.

“This report is quantitative evidence of the RSF’s intent to prevent those it considers enemies from feeding themselves,” he said. “For Sudan, the implication is clear: what happened here could happen again.”

Source: The Guardian