Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been trying to cover up mass killings in the city of el-Fasher by burying and burning bodies, a research team from Yale University says.
The RSF had drawn international condemnation amid reports of executions and crimes against humanity when its fighters captured the city in October.
Now, analysis of satellite images by Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) shows the RSF likely disposed of tens of thousands of bodies after seizing el-Fasher.
The RSF has not responded to the report, but its leader previously admitted his fighters had committed some violations in the city.
The HRL's report said the RSF engaged in a systematic multi-week campaign to destroy evidence of its widespread mass killings and this pattern of body disposal and destruction is ongoing.
The paramilitary group has been fighting Sudan's regular army since April 2023, when a power struggle between the two parties erupted into a brutal civil war.
The United Nations (UN) has described the conflict as the world's worst humanitarian disaster.
Following an international backlash, RSF leader Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo declared an investigation into what he called violations committed by his soldiers during the capture of el-Fasher.
The group continued to deny widespread allegations that killings in the city are ethnically motivated and follow a pattern of Arab paramilitaries targeting non-Arab populations.
The latest HRL report follows warnings from aid agencies about the low number of civilians who managed to successfully flee el-Fasher after the RSF seizure.
The UN estimates roughly 250,000 people were still trapped in the city, with less than half thought to have arrived in external camps for displaced people.
