Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday condemned what he called “massacres of civilians” in the Sudanese city of El Fasher, describing the violence as something “no one with a conscience can accept,” during a televised speech in İstanbul.
Speaking at the TRT World Forum, an annual event organized by Turkey’s state broadcaster, Erdoğan said attacks in and around El Fasher “must stop” and urged the international community not to remain “silent and indifferent” to the suffering of civilians.
“As Turkey, we condemn in the strongest terms the atrocities committed against civilians in El Fasher,” Erdoğan said. “The attacks in and around El Fasher must end, and the massacres of innocent civilians must stop immediately.”
El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur in western Sudan, fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), last week after months of siege.
The RSF, a powerful paramilitary group that grew out of the Janjaweed militias responsible for mass killings in Darfur in the early 2000s, has been fighting Sudan’s national army since April 2023.
The latest reports from United Nations agencies and aid groups describe summary executions, attacks on hospitals and the killing of hundreds of patients and displaced people sheltering inside a maternity hospital.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it had received “appalling reports” of summary killings and widespread abuses following the RSF’s takeover of the city. The World Health Organization reported that more than 460 patients and their relatives were killed in one hospital alone.
Erdoğan did not name the RSF in his remarks but said the massacres in Darfur show that “humanity must question itself” if children continue to die despite all modern technology and communication.
Turkey’s foreign ministry released a separate statement earlier this week calling for an immediate end to the fighting in and around El Fasher, the protection of civilians and humanitarian access for aid organizations.
The war in Sudan began when a power struggle between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the national army, and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, leader of the RSF, escalated into a nationwide conflict. The two men had previously shared power after the overthrow of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 10 million, according to United Nations figures, making it one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Large parts of Darfur are now under RSF control, while the army holds the country’s north and east, including the capital Khartoum.
While the United Arab Emirates is widely accused of backing the RSF, a Washington Post investigation reported that Baykar, the Turkish defense contractor that produces the Bayraktar TB2 combat drone, has supplied about $120 million in drones, munitions and equipment to Sudan’s army since late 2023, which Ankara denies. Separate reports say Turkish intermediaries also had channels to the RSF through business and political contacts.