Satellite images compared to those of El-Fasher in Sudan show the brutality of a massacre

In a series of WhatsApp messages, Abdullah* describes how everyone he knew at the Saudi hospital in the town of El-Fasher, in Sudan's Darfur region, died.

He is reluctant to talk about anything else because he fears for those who were stuck when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took control of the city at the end of October.

The RSF is a former state-aligned militia, now the main opposition to the Sudanese armed forces.

At his workplace, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that more than 460 patients and their companions were killed. At least six health workers were also kidnapped.

“We left through the north gate at the start of their incursion and infiltrated the city to the north,” Abdullah explains.

Thousands of refugees, like Abdullah, were forced to flee. Some traveled more than 70 kilometers to Tawilah.

The RSF controls much of the west, including, since late last month, the North Darfur state capital of El-Fasher, which was the last major stronghold of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in Darfur.

The city fell to the RSF after a 500-day siege.

Looking at El-Fasher

Accessing towns like El-Fasher is difficult and dangerous.

Monitoring the war is largely done by aid groups still on the ground, as well as through videos posted online and satellite images capturing developments from space.

On October 27, around the time El-Fasher was taken by the RSF, war crimes investigators at the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab noticed a series of “reddish discolorations of the ground” and “luminous objects.”

These discolorations and objects are blood and bodies, according to the laboratory's executive director, Nathanial Raymond.

“They did not appear in the baseline images from a few days ago. There was no presence of objects measuring between 1.3 and 2 meters long and this range on the object is critical because a human body lying horizontally in 30 centimeter satellite imagery will measure in pixel terms between 1.3 and 2 meters,” Mr Raymond said.

“The fading. It's usually about half a meter long and happens when bodies first appear, and it's the blood fading. We measure it mathematically and it comes back mathematically as a true red.”

Analysis indicates that vehicles can also be seen blocking roads in western El-Fasher.

In a university building, on October 28, the scene repeats itself.

ABC NEWS Verify geotagged graphic video showing bodies strewn across the ground floor and an execution inside the university's main building.

Nearby, at the Saudi hospital, these “objects” are again visible in images from October 28.

On the outskirts of the city, on a dike built by the RSF to encircle the city, satellite images show vehicles and bodies set on fire on October 31.

The consequences of this carnage were filmed by RSF and posted online on a Telegram account aligned with RSF.

ABC NEWS Verify geotagged the videos to the same location, matching the angles of the burning cars.

“What shocked me was how little the world cared,” Mr. Raymond told 7:30.

“It’s very horrible to watch”

For the families of residents of El Fasher in Australia, learning the fate of their loved ones means watching horrific and heartbreaking propaganda videos about the massacres posted by RSF or on RSF-aligned social media accounts.

Musab Hassan browses RSF accounts in the hope of seeing his family and friends.

“It's very horrible to see, especially on your own people. And you know there are people there. Whether they are suffering the same fate or whether they are already killed, you don't know,” Mr. Hassan said.

Mr Hassan is the Sydney leader of the Zaghawa community, one of the non-Arab indigenous tribes persecuted by the RSF.

He claims that his cousin Abdelazziz was in El-Fasher as an aid worker on October 26, but was kidnapped by RSF and held for ransom.

The last video Mr. Hassan has of Abdelazziz is a visit to his office after it was bombed by the RSF, days before the incursion.

“Hundreds of members of our extended family were in El-Fasher when the attack took place. Today we have nothing left, we have no information about their fate,” Mr. Hassan said.

After the kidnapping, he claims that a person claiming to be an RSF soldier demanded 6 million Sudanese pounds ($15,000) for Abdelazziz's release. Mr. Hassan says his family, based in Egypt, paid immediately.

“That money was transferred immediately, within hours. They said, 'If you don't send, you must forget about them'… and then everything was cut off again. They disappeared.”

Families kept in the dark

Sara Sinada, a member of the Sudanese community and humanitarian specialist, says it is almost impossible for citizens to share what is happening in Sudan.

“The biggest fear was that RSF would collect someone's phones and find a photo or text message documenting what was happening,” Sinada said.

“And this actually happened to my cousin, who was unfortunately kidnapped by RSF because of a simple voice note he had sent to a WhatsApp group criticizing RSF.”

She says this threat to life means information from sources not aligned with RSF is rare.

“(It's) a sad situation to say the least, but it reflects the danger anyone in Sudan finds themselves in if they try to report this to a group of friends or tell their family what is happening,” she said.

“It just means that there is a huge amount of underinformation and the amount of stuff we see coming out of Sudan is mostly carried away by the soldiers and RSF members themselves.”

For Mr. Hassan, remaining in the dark about his family was the hardest thing to understand.

“We know we lose our loved ones, but what is (more) painful than losing loved ones… is the uncertainty of our loved ones, whether they are alive, whether she is dead or whether she is a hostage,” he said.

“RSF is not a criminal organization like any other. They commit the crime, document it themselves and send it to you immediately on your screen.”

*ABC NEWS Verify chose to change Abdullah's name for his safety

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