Medical group says RSF holds 6,500 in El Geneina, a year after El Fasher fell
The Sudan Doctors Network published detainee figures, named three detention sites and described a transfer chain out of El Fasher. Nothing in it has been independently verified, and the RSF has not responded.
On Thursday 15 October the Sudan Doctors Network, an independent Sudanese medical group, said it had “obtained documented information indicating the presence of more than 6,500 military and civilian detainees in several detention sites in the city of El Geneina,” West Darfur, according to Sudan Tribune. The group’s tally includes 709 women and roughly 500 children under 18. It named three sites: the former headquarters of UNAMID, the African Union–UN mission in Darfur; the base of the army’s 15th Infantry Division; and Ardamata prison. The network reported food shortages, deteriorating health conditions and a rise in daily deaths compared with the same period last year, and asked for adequate food, clean water and healthcare, access for independent medical and humanitarian organisations, disclosure of detainees' whereabouts and fate, protection from torture, and investigation of deaths in custody.
The thread that matters most is the movement of people. Sudan Tribune reports the network said the majority of the women detained were captured in El Fasher after the Rapid Support Forces took the city in October 2025 and were later transferred to El Geneina, with some detainees moved on to Nyala in South Darfur. If accurate, that describes a transfer chain running out of El Fasher roughly a year after its fall — the same operation in which UN investigators found “hallmarks of genocide” and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights found that RSF violations amounted to war crimes, both in February 2026. Anadolu Agency separately reported an estimate of 19,800 people held across RSF-run facilities overall, attributed to “Sudanese authorities and rights groups” — sourcing that includes one of the belligerent governments.
Assessment: Read the provenance before the number. Sudan Tribune, Radio Tamazuj and Anadolu are carrying one statement from one group; there is no ICRC access, no RSF reply and no UN corroboration in anything published this week. That does not make it false — the RSF has controlled all of West Darfur since November 2023, and El Geneina is where the Masalit killings of 2023 took place — but a figure that circulates uncontested for a week is weaker evidence than one that draws a denial. The test for the coming days is institutional: whether OHCHR, the Fact-Finding Mission or the ICRC touch it. Silence from all three would say something about access, not about accuracy.