How Bloodstains Photographed from Space Brought Attention to a Forgotten War

When the Sudanese city of El-Fasher was sacked by paramilitaries last fall, ground reporting gave way to long-distance analysis.

In December of 2025, after widespread massacres were reported in the city of El-Fasher, in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, a journalist named Nadia Taha was invited, along with other experts, to share her insights at a congressional briefing in Washington, DC.

Taha, who was born and raised in El-Fasher, began by describing the city and its society and culture, and related how a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had seized control of El-Fasher on October 26 after a nearly two-year siege. Once inside, the RSF reportedly targeted non-Arab residents for atrocities ranging from torture to rape, killing tens of thousands of people, including many of Taha’s relatives and neighbors. The perpetrators boasted about their acts in videos posted on social media. As she spoke at the briefing, Taha choked up. “I used to work for the Voice of America,” she said, with evident frustration. She had been laid off a few months earlier, after Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for the near-elimination of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which includes VOA. “I feel like my hands are tied.”