Our Task Is Solely Eliminating' - How Sudan's Vicious Militia Carried out a Mass Killing

Combatants laugh as they travel on the back of a pick-up truck, speeding alongside a row of nine corpses and driving facing the sinking Sudanese sun.

"Look at this extensive work. See this instance of mass destruction," a fighter cheers.

He smiles as he points the camera on himself and his associate fighters, their paramilitary insignia on display: "These people shall all be killed like this."

The combatants are rejoicing over a atrocity that relief organizations suspect resulted in the deaths of more than thousands of individuals in the Sudanese city of el-Fasher last month.

An Urban Center Cut Off from the Globe

Following their control of the city under siege for nearly two years, from late summer the RSF advanced to strengthen its position and blockade the surviving inhabitants.

Space-based imagery reveal that troops started to build a immense earth barrier - a raised dirt embankment - around the edges of the city, blocking access routes and preventing humanitarian assistance.

While the blockade intensified, multiple individuals were slain in an paramilitary attack on a religious building on September 19th, while the UN said 53 more were murdered in aerial and cannon bombardments on a refugee settlement in October.

Disturbing Video Shows Weaponless People Executed

At dawn on 26 October the militia defeated the remaining government strongholds and seized the primary compound in the city, the headquarters of the Army Division, as the government forces retreated.

Perhaps the most horrific videos to emerge and studied showed the aftermath of a massacre at a university building on the western side of the community, where scores corpses were seen strewn across the area.

An elderly individual dressed in a robe was seated alone amid the corpses. The man turned to look as a combatant carrying with a firearm proceeded along the steps towards him. Raising his rifle, the shooter discharged a single bullet at the individual, who fell to the ground still.

"Why is this person even alive," a militiaman cried. "Kill this person."

Satellite images recorded on late October seemed to substantiate that killings were also carried out on the roads of al-Fashir, according to a study issued by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab.

A key observer who provided testimony said they had observed "many of our family members being executed - they were collected in a single location and all killed."

Militia Commanders Try to Conduct Reputation Management

During the period that came after the massacre, RSF leader conceded that his fighters had committed "wrongdoings" and stated the events would be examined.

Part of the apprehended was subsequent to a report recording his murders. Carefully orchestrated and modified recording posted on the RSF's official messaging channel show him being led into a cell at a detention facility on the outskirts of the city.

Simultaneously, the RSF and connected social media accounts started attempting to reframe the account.

Content presenting its fighters distributing aid to inhabitants were shared by various users, while the paramilitary's public relations unit shared numerous recordings purporting to demonstrate the proper management of government detainees.

In spite of the social media effort being used by the militia, their conduct in el-Fasher have sparked global condemnation.