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Militiamen laugh as they move on the back of a pick-up truck, hurrying alongside a line of several dead bodies and moving facing the descending Sudanese sunset.

"Observe this extensive effort. Look at this instance of mass destruction," one exclaims.

The fighter smiles as he points the camera on himself and his fellow militiamen, their Rapid Support Forces badges visible: "These people are all going to perish this way."

These individuals are celebrating a mass killing that relief organizations fear claimed the lives of over thousands of people in the African city of el-Fasher in recent weeks.

An Urban Center Cut Off from the World

After maintaining the city under encirclement for approximately 24 months, from the summer the paramilitary force advanced to strengthen its control and blockade the leftover civilian population.

Satellite images demonstrate that fighters commenced to build a massive sand wall - a built-up dirt embankment - surrounding the edges of the city, sealing off access routes and blocking humanitarian assistance.

While the blockade escalated, seventy-eight individuals were slain in an RSF assault on a mosque on mid-September, while the international organization said 53 additional were killed in drone and cannon attacks on a makeshift community in October.

Disturbing Footage Depicts Weaponless Civilians Executed

By sunrise on October 26th the RSF defeated the remaining military strongholds and captured the central headquarters in the urban area, the main facility of the Army Division, as the military pulled back.

Among the most graphic videos to appear and analysed revealed the aftermath of a mass killing at a campus structure on the western side of the city, where scores dead bodies were visible spread across the area.

An elderly person clad in a white tunic was seated alone surrounded by the victims. The man rotated to gaze as a combatant carrying with a weapon moved descending the staircase towards him. lifting his rifle, the fighter released a solitary shot at the victim, who collapsed to the floor lifeless.

"How come is this person yet alive," another militiaman exclaimed. "Execute this one."

Orbital photography captured on 26 October indicated to verify that executions were also conducted on the thoroughfares of el-Fasher, as reported by a analysis released by the academic research center.

An eyewitness who provided testimony reported they had witnessed "multiple of our family members getting executed - they were collected in a specific area and everyone murdered."

Paramilitary Leaders Try to Carry Out Public Relations

In the days that came after the killings, paramilitary chief acknowledged that his fighters had perpetrated "violations" and announced the occurrences would be investigated.

Included among arrested was following a analysis documenting his executions. Carefully choreographed and edited footage posted on the RSF's formal Telegram account reveal him being escorted into a detention area at a detention facility on the edges of al-Fashir.

At the same time, the militia and affiliated digital accounts started attempting to reframe the narrative.

Posts depicting its fighters distributing aid to inhabitants were circulated by several accounts, while the paramilitary's public relations unit published numerous recordings claiming to display the humane treatment of military detainees.

Regardless of the digital effort being used by the militia, their actions in al-Fashir have provoked global outrage.