Evangelist Franklin Graham denounced what he called the “face of radical Islam” in Sudan after receiving videos showing paramilitary fighters executing civilians following the Rapid Support Forces’ capture of el-Fasher.
According to The Associated Press, Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized el-Fasher on Monday, taking the last government-held city in Darfur after a prolonged siege.
AP reporting noted that the RSF had already driven Sudanese army units from the wider region in recent weeks, signaling a new phase in a war that has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced over 14 million, while the Sudanese government said over 2,000 civilians have been killed since the RSF entered the city.
Graham, who leads Samaritan’s Purse and is the son of the late Rev. Billy Graham, wrote on Facebook that “This is the face of radical Islam. We’ve been working in Sudan for over 30 years, and our hearts break for this country,” urging prayer for civilians being “murdered as you read this.”
He asserted that RSF fighters were “just killing for the sake of killing,” arguing the violence reflects radical Islam.
“A massacre is taking place in Sudan, and the world has pretty much ignored it,” he wrote.
Graham added that the footage—depicting head shootings and “piles of bodies”—was too graphic to make public.
The BBC reported that videos verified by its journalists show RSF fighters carrying out executions in and around el-Fasher after taking the city from the Sudanese Armed Forces.
U.K.-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide called for “urgent international action” amid accounts of atrocities against civilians.
“The images and reporting emerging from El Fasher are horrific,” CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said in a statement.
“Images of RSF fighters humiliating, torturing and killing civilians are just a snapshot of the devastating violence that civilians in El Fasher have been enduring for the past 18 months and are now being subjected to without any protection. We are also deeply disturbed by the number of RSF fighters who appear to be children recruited to perpetrate unimaginable violence," he stated.
“CSW calls on the international community to ensure the protection of Tawila, where many have fled, and to insist on unhindered humanitarian access to the region.”
The RSF, commanded by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), evolved from the Janjaweed militia implicated in terrorizing non-Arab communities during the Darfur genocide in the early 2000s.
As AP has noted, Janjaweed founder and former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and genocide in 2009.
Following al-Bashir’s ouster in 2019, Dagalo emerged as a key power broker in Sudan, including a leading role in a military coup and the dissolution of a transitional government.
The present conflict erupted in 2023 after a fragile arrangement between Dagalo’s RSF and Sudanese army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan collapsed.
As of this week, reports indicate the Sudanese army holds much of the north and east—including Khartoum—while the RSF controls nearly all of Darfur and parts of Kordofan.
According to the BBC, the RSF’s antecedent, the Janjaweed, conducted mass killings in the same region from 2003 to 2005, and many of those fighters are believed to have joined the current force.
