Good morning. The horrors that unfolded across social media over the past week have laid bare another devastating chapter in Sudan’s civil war.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been locked in a brutal conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for more than two years, seized a key military base in the city of El Fasher over the weekend. After the capture, the RSF was accused of killing more than 2,000 unarmed civilians, with Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab calling the level of violence comparable to the first 24 hours of the Rwandan genocide.
Videos have emerged showing “dozens of unarmed men being shot or lying dead, surrounded by RSF fighters”, according to the UN. Separately, footage shared by pro-democracy activists appeared to show bodies scattered on the ground alongside burnt-out vehicles, though the videos were not independently verified. UN leaders condemned the mass killings by the RSF on Thursday.
Much of what is now known about the atrocity has come to light through satellite imagery and the meticulous work of human rights analysts and journalists who have geolocated videos posted by those carrying out the attacks.
To understand the crucial role that imagery has had in documenting the scale of these atrocities, I spoke to Kaamil Ahmed, the Guardian’s international development reporter. That’s after the headlines.
Five big stories
Monarchy | Prince Andrew is to be stripped of his royal titles and will move out of his home at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, Buckingham Palace has announced. He will be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. It follows continual headlines concerning Andrew’s friendship with the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and sexual allegations levelled against him by one of Epstein’s victims, the late Virginia Giuffre.
UK politics | Keir Starmer appears to have escaped the huge political damage of potentially losing his chancellor before the budget after Rachel Reeves’s letting agency said it was responsible for not obtaining a council licence when it let out her four-bedroom house in south London on her behalf.
US-China | The US president, Donald Trump, said he agreed a rare earths deal and a tariff cut at a crunch trade meeting with China’s president, Xi Jinping, in South Korea.
World | Violent demonstrations broke out in Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, as its president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, neared election victory. A global monitor recorded an internet blackout as government critics were abducted or arrested in the run-up to the vote.
US news | New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, declared a state of emergency to raise $65m for food banks as federal funding for the national food stamps programme is set to expire on Saturday, due to the government shutdown.
In depth: ‘It’s the first time I’ve seen satellite imagery pick up blood stains’
The civil war between the RSF and the Sudanese army began in April 2023, after a power struggle between the two forces. More than 150,000 people have been killed and more than 14 million displaced by the fighting. My colleague Archie Bland broke down the origins of the conflict in a First Edition earlier this year.
The latest massacre underscores the staggering human cost of what the UN has called the world’s “largest humanitarian crisis”. The conflict has already pushed parts of Sudan into famine, while the RSF stands accused of carrying out acts of genocide.
Fears had been mounting in recent weeks for the tens of thousands of civilians trapped in El Fasher under an 18-month siege. News agencies have been unable to reach residents in the city, where the Sudanese Journalists’ Syndicate reports that communications have been cut off under a media blackout.
Under these conditions, satellite imagery has been paramount, says Kaamil. “It’s been used not only to monitor what’s happening on the ground, but also to warn people when attacks are likely, by tracking the buildup of military equipment outside major cities.”
Still, the latest massacre marks a grim new chapter. “This is the first time I’ve seen satellite imagery pick up blood stains on this scale on the ground,” said Kaamil. “It’s truly been a bloodbath.”
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What happened in El Fasher?
In a statement on Sunday, the RSF said it had “extended control over the city of El Fasher from the grip of mercenaries and militias”. The day after, Sudanese army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan confirmed that his forces had withdrawn from the city “to a safer location”, effectively conceding its loss.
In our call, Kaamil explains how the paramilitary takeover of the Zamzam displaced persons camp earlier this year, which housed hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people next to El Fasher, had been a turning point.
“The 18-month siege in El Fasher really escalated after the attack on Zamzam, which caused the biggest displacement we’ve seen,” said Kaamil. “When Zamzam was attacked and taken over in April, many people fled to El Fasher. Since then, the city has been the main focus of the RSF, which already controlled much of the surrounding area. The massacre that people had been warning about has finally happened.”
That bears out in the harrowing reports from the past week: of RSF fighters killing medical staff, patients and their loved ones in the city’s Saudi hospital. More than 1,000 people, including women and children, walked for two days to reach the town of Tawila in North Darfur after fleeing El Fasher.
The RSF has also been accused of hunting down specific individuals, detaining civilians, and releasing them only after receiving ransom payments – a pattern that Kaamil said was consistent with how the RSF overtook other major cities.
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Videos as a ‘warning to others’
Kaamil, who last visited Sudan in 2019 and recently returned from interviewing Sudanese refugees in Chad, said satellite imagery has become one of the few reliable tools for documenting atrocities, and warning of those yet to come.
Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, which has been tracking the conflict using open-source intelligence and satellite imagery, said it had found evidence consistent with mass killings by the RSF. In a report released on Tuesday, the lab said El Fasher “appears to be in a systematic and intentional process of ethnic cleansing of Fur, Zaghawa and Berti Indigenous non-Arab communities through forced displacement and summary execution”. Analysts also identified what appeared to be “door-to-door clearance operations” across the city; where militants went house to house, committing a series of acts of violence.
The Yale team said satellite images showed large “clusters” consistent with adult human bodies, and that these formations were not visible in earlier imagery. Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Yale Lab, said satellite evidence showed bodies and red discoloration on the ground.
RSF fighters have also reportedly circulated videos of their atrocities – a tactic long used in Sudan. “What people tell me is, it’s partly pride, partly intimidation,” Kaamil said. “They release these videos as a warning to others.”
Journalists analysing footage from the most recent massacre have been able to identify specific RSF commanders previously accused of carrying out summary executions of civilians, as well as geo-locate where the massacres are taking place.
These videos have also been crucial in identifying what took place in El Fasher last weekend, and what happened elsewhere or at another time.
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Global indifference
The humanitarian situation in Sudan remains severe and devastating. The world appeared to be placing some focus on the conflict earlier this year when a conference held in London brought together 17 countries, as well as the EU and African Union, to discuss the conflict. It was accompanied by some new pledges of aid, and was billed as an effort to build a new consensus on a way forward. But there was widespread criticism that some of the countries at the conference were alleged to be involved with the conflict, most notably the UAE.
Sudan’s military government has accused the UAE of supplying arms to the RSF, which the Emiratis have denied. In April, a leaked UN experts’ report found “multiple” flights from the UAE, as transport planes made apparently deliberate attempts to avoid detection as they flew into bases in Chad, where arms smuggling across the border into Darfur has been monitored.
Kaamil explained that the UAE’s relationship with the RSF can be traced back to the 2015 Yemen war, where the RSF was used to recruit fighters who were sent to Yemen to fight for the Saudi and UAE forces.
He added that the UAE’s interest in Sudan is also down to its gold. “In Darfur, there are lots of big goldmines,” he said. “Most of the gold shipments in Sudan go to the UAE.”
The world’s indifference to the conflict is maddening in the face of war crimes committed by Sudan’s army and the RSF. The RSF and allied militias have attacked non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur, with fighters saying they would force women to have “Arab babies”, according to a UN report published in November 2024. In January 2025, the US government formally declared that the RSF had committed genocide.
Yet the prospect of a ceasefire and an end to the bloodshed remains a distant dream. Until then, satellite imagery and video analysis will continue to play a crucial role in documenting atrocities and sounding the alarm.
What else we’ve been reading
Readers remembering the late Prunella Scales yesterday – including one who got a wink from the Fawlty Towers actor and another who had a very memorable conversation with her – was lovely. Poppy Noor, Deputy newsletters editor
I have long thought of Halloween as an American import, so it was lovely to learn from Michael Carter that most of All Hallows’ Eve’s familiar rituals began on this side of the Atlantic. Aamna, writer, First Edition
I can’t get enough of six-seven content, and neither can readers, it seems. So do enjoy Matt Cantor’s recent take, on all the meaning (and non-meaning) that the trend beholds. Poppy
Affluent neighbourhoods have more diversity of nature. With everything going on in the world, it may be tempting to dismiss this, but as my colleague Phoebe Weston says, this class divide has important implications for human wellbeing and shedding light on injustice. Aamna
Sanam Vakil’s piece on why the vagueness of Gaza’s ceasefire plan makes fertile ground for cynical opportunism on both sides is an engaging and informative read. Poppy
Sport
Cricket | India beat Australia in a historic chase to reach the Women’s Cricket World Cup final, where they will play South Africa. India won by five wickets in the second semi-final in Navi Mumbai.
Football | The England forward Michelle Agyemang, crucial to the team’s success in this summer’s Euros, has promised to come back “stronger than before” after confirming that she ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament during the Lionesses’ 3-0 victory over Australia on Tuesday.
Rugby union | Tane Edmed will keep his Wallabies fly-half spot against England this Saturday as Carter Gordon’s return to international rugby union has been put on hold. Gordon is believed to be struggling with a quad strain and has been left out of the team seeking back-to-back wins against England at Twickenham for the first time in 16 years.
The front pages
The Guardian leads with “Andrew to be stripped of his royal titles and must move out of home”. “Andrew no longer Prince” – that’s the Telegraph, and the Mirror has the strapline “Meet Mr Windsor” over a photo of a glowering Andrew and the headline “Finally …”. The Mail says he is “Banished” but that is not its main story; instead it goes for “Humiliation for Reeves as she changes her story” and the cohabiting Metro similarly has “Reeves house gaffe haunts Starmer” with just a flick of Andrew above that. “Andrew stripped of his ‘prince’ title and home” reports the Times. “King removes ‘style, titles and honours’ from brother” is what the Express says. The i paper runs with “Andrew stripped of prince title in historic move to save monarchy”. Andrew is not the business of the Financial Times, though didn’t he used to be the UK trade and investment envoy or something? Another title fallen by the wayside … but anyway the FT splashes on “US and China agree trade détente as Trump hails ‘12 out of 10’ Xi summit”.
Today in Focus
Living through the horror of Hurricane Melissa
How will Jamaica recover from its most powerful hurricane on record? Natricia Duncan reports
Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
For the last 40 years, the Aulonia albimana, a member of the wolf spider family with orange legs, was thought to have joined the UK’s list of extinct of species. But it has now been rediscovered on a remote area of a nature reserve on the Isle of Wight that is only accessible by boat.
Entomologists Mark Telfer and Graeme Lyons made the discovery at the National Trust’s Newtown national nature reserve, which had become overgrown but was restored by the National Trust with the help of some hungry Hebridean sheep.
Lyons said they had just four hours at the site before their boat was due to pick them up. “I found the first one with just nine minutes to go, and the second one in the last minute,” he said.
The next task is to establish the full extent of the population and the conditions it needs to secure its future.
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Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
