Khthon documents mass graves, atrocity crimes, and forensic evidence from conflict zones worldwide. Our work is strictly humanitarian and apolitical.
This site may contain imagery and descriptions of deceased individuals, violent injuries, and human remains gathered in the course of active investigations. Content is presented for accountability and documentation purposes only.
Khthon documents mass graves, atrocity crimes, and forensic evidence from conflict zones worldwide. Our work is strictly humanitarian and apolitical.
This site may contain imagery and descriptions of deceased individuals, violent injuries, and human remains gathered in the course of active investigations.
Since April 2023, Sudan's war between the RSF and the SAF has produced a dense, shifting map of killings and clandestine burials — nowhere more visible than in Darfur, from the Masalit massacres in El Geneina and Ardamata to the siege and fall of El Fasher and the attacks on the Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps.
Situation Overview
Since April 2023, Sudan's nationwide war between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has produced a dense, shifting map of killings and clandestine burials. Nowhere has this been more visible than in Darfur, where RSF and allied militias carried out large-scale, ethnically targeted massacres of Masalit communities in and around El Geneina and Ardamata.
In North Darfur, the RSF's siege of El Fasher and its year-long assault on the Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps ended with Zamzam overrun in April 2025 and the city itself falling in October 2025. Satellite imagery shows cemeteries around both camps expanding by hundreds of new burial mounds.
Elsewhere, fighting in Khartoum, Omdurman, and Nyala has driven ad-hoc burials in hospital grounds, open lots, and cemetery extensions as front lines move — and has gutted the museums, archives, mosques, and churches that hold Sudan's collective memory. Independent forensic access is rare. Communications blackouts and intimidation of witnesses mean many graves are documented only by those who fled, or by fragments of video that surface after the fact.
GEOINT Methodology
For Khthon as a GEOINT organisation, Sudan combines patterns from both insurgency and state warfare.
Multi-Sensor Fusion Workflow
01 · SATINT
Time-Series Imagery
Cross-referencing FIRMS hotspots with time-series satellite imagery refines searches for new graves near freshly burned settlements. Machine-cut trench geometry and spoil mounds are identified against pre-conflict baselines.
02 · SOCMINT / HUMINT
Survivor Testimony
FIRMS data is integrated with SOCMINT and HUMINT from survivors and local reporters, building incident chronologies that connect detention and execution centres to burial sites across the conflict zone.
03 · RECORD
Permanent Evidence
Our workflow preserves evidence in one of the world's most hostile environments for forensic access — ensuring that even temporary satellite visibility is converted into permanent records of atrocity.
2003–2008
First Darfur genocide — Janjaweed campaigns
The Sudanese government arms Arab Janjaweed militias to suppress the Sudan Liberation Movement and Justice and Equality Movement, triggering a campaign of mass killing, sexual violence, and displacement against Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa communities. An estimated 200,000–400,000 people are killed. The ICC issues arrest warrants for President Omar al-Bashir in 2009 and 2010 — the first sitting head of state indicted by the court.
OCT 2013 – MAR 2014
Mellit — rebel attacks and an unmarked cemetery
Clashes between the SAF and Darfur rebel factions culminate in March 2014, when rebels briefly seize Mellit; reports put the dead at 90 or more, including soldiers, reserve police, and civilians. Khthon's Mellit report traces an unmarked burial ground on the town's outskirts that first appears in satellite imagery in this period and keeps growing.
2019
Overthrow of al-Bashir — the transitional period
Mass protests topple Omar al-Bashir after 30 years. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), play a central role in the transition — and massacre over 100 protesters in the Khartoum sit-in. A fragile civilian–military transitional government is formed. Mass grave sites from the Darfur era remain uninvestigated and inaccessible.
APR 2023
War breaks out — RSF vs. SAF
Fighting erupts between the RSF and the SAF on 15 April 2023 in Khartoum and spreads within days across Darfur and Kordofan. In the capital, the RSF seizes the Republican Palace complex, and satellite analysis places the fire at the Sudan National Museum between 17 and 20 April — the first losses in a cultural catastrophe Khthon documents in its Cultural Genocide reports.
MAY–NOV 2023
El Geneina and Ardamata massacres
Multiple waves of ethnically targeted killing in and around El Geneina kill an estimated 10,000–15,000 people, predominantly Masalit. Survivors and satellite imagery document mass graves near security compounds, wadi beds, and the town's edges. In November 2023, RSF forces attack the Ardamata camp for displaced people, killing hundreds. Witnesses describe executions at checkpoints along the Chad border road.
OCT 2023
Nyala and South Darfur — expanding front
The RSF takes Nyala, Sudan's second-largest city, triggering further displacement and killings. Surrounding neighbourhoods are hit by projectiles, and the Darfur Community Museum is reported looted of its collections.
2023–2024
Khartoum and Omdurman — urban warfare burials
Sustained fighting collapses formal mortuary infrastructure. Bodies are buried in hospital grounds, open lots, and improvised cemetery extensions. SAF airstrikes and RSF ground operations cause mass civilian casualties, while museums, universities, and places of worship are shelled, burned, and looted.
APR 2024 – APR 2025
Siege of El Fasher — Zamzam and Abu Shouk under fire
The RSF wages a year of shelling, shooting, and arson against the Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps. Between 10 and 13 April 2025 it storms Zamzam; the UN reports hundreds dead, a local committee estimates around 1,500, and some 400,000 people are displaced. Reuters identifies more than 1,200 new burial mounds around Zamzam. See Khthon's Zamzam and Abu Shouk report.
MAY–JUN 2024
Khthon tests NASA FIRMS against reported burnings
Khthon's fire-mapping study checks seven reported attacks — from El Fasher and Kutum to Khartoum, Omdurman, and Wad Al-Noura in Gezira — against NASA fire data. FIRMS picks up fires at five locations but misses or lags others, showing where satellite fire data must be backed by other sources.
JAN–MAR 2025
Heritage losses in El Fasher; SAF retakes the capital
RSF shelling in January 2025 sets fire to the Sultan Ali Dinar Museum in El Fasher, destroying much of its collection. In March 2025 the SAF retakes the Republican Palace in Khartoum, revealing gutted museums and archives across the city.
AUG 2025
Renewed massacre in Abu Shouk
Attacks on Abu Shouk between 11 and 20 August 2025 kill at least 89 civilians, some in apparent summary executions. The Yale Humanitarian Research Lab records 190 new burial mounds between 3 August and 10 September.
OCT 2025
Fall of El Fasher
After 18 months of siege, the RSF overruns El Fasher. More than 6,000 people are killed between 25 and 27 October, and UN-backed experts say the atrocities bear the hallmarks of genocide. The RSF is left in control of most of Darfur.
DEC 2025 – APR 2026
Khthon publishes its Darfur and heritage reports
Khthon publishes Zamzam and Abu Shouk Refugee Camp Massacres (December 2025), Sudan Cultural Genocide, Part 2 (January 2026), covering attacks on mosques and churches as well as museums, and Unidentified Grave Sites in Mellit (April 2026).
FEB 2026
RSF assault on Misteriha
Drone strikes on 22 February hit Musa Hilal's guesthouse and the town's only health centre; a ground assault the next day takes Misteriha. The Sudan Doctors Network counts at least 28 civilians killed and 39 wounded as an initial figure, and more than 3,000 people flee. See Khthon's Misteriha report.
JUL 2026
SAF retakes Bara — the war shifts to Kordofan
On 25 July 2026 the SAF and allied Joint Forces announce the capture of Bara, Umm Sayalla, Jabrat al-Sheikh, and Umm Girfa, reopening the Al-Sadarat Highway to besieged El Obeid, while RSF drone strikes on civilians and water stations continue. See Khthon's Bara and Umm Sayalla analysis.
Ongoing
Khthon monitoring — SATINT, FIRMS, SOCMINT fusion
Khthon maintains active monitoring of Sudan using multi-sensor fusion: NASA FIRMS hotspot data for fire anomalies linked to airstrikes and village burning, satellite time-series for machine-cut trench geometry and cemetery expansion, and SOCMINT/HUMINT from survivors and local reporters. Independent forensic access remains rare. Our methodology converts temporary satellite visibility into permanent records of atrocity before burial sites are obscured or destroyed.
Browse Khthon's full catalogue of country and case reports across seven global regions, or get involved with our ongoing investigations.
