In the dusty, blood-soaked streets of el-Fasher, the Rapid Support Forces have etched a new definition of savagery. Amnesty International’s latest report pulls no punches: crimes against humanity, systematic and deliberate. But beyond the legal jargon, what does this mean for the people who call that city home?
It means the slow death of a community. It means children learning the sound of gunfire before the alphabet, and women forced to flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs. The RSF, born from the Janjaweed, have become a marauding machine, and the world has looked away for too long.
The cultural shift here is one of permanent trauma, a scar that will shape generations. And now, Amnesty calls for UK sanctions. But a piece of paper won’t rebuild a soul.
We need a human response, not just a political one. The question is not whether to sanction, but whether we care enough to ensure those sanctions bite where they hurt, and that they are accompanied by a real commitment to protect civilians. The people of el-Fasher deserve more than headlines.
They deserve a future.
