On May 23, 2025, the Sudanese army said hundreds of civilian bodies had been discovered in mass graves in Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city. The North Africa Post reported that the military said the Rapid Support Forces had detained 648 people in "horrific and inhumane conditions" inside a school in the Salha neighborhood.
According to the army statement quoted in the report, about 465 people died and were buried in mass graves, some of which contained more than 27 bodies. If accurate, those figures would point to one of the most disturbing chapters yet in Sudan's civil war. The report does not say the RSF responded to the allegation, and that silence leaves the army's account standing alone in the excerpt.
The timing also matters. The army declared Khartoum "completely free" of the RSF the previous Tuesday, after months of fierce fighting. That means the discovery came as government forces were reasserting control over the capital region and beginning to uncover evidence of what had happened during the occupation and the battles that preceded it. Mass graves discovered after a shift in control often become both forensic evidence and a political weapon.
The report places the claim within a wider catastrophe. Sudan has been fighting since April 2023, a war that local authorities and the United Nations say has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced 15 million. U.S. researchers estimate the death toll could be far higher, at around 130,000. Those numbers show why even a single reported mass grave is not just a local crime story but part of a national emergency of staggering scale.
The same account says Sudan is dealing with a severe cholera outbreak and severe strain on humanitarian access, including the movement of aid convoys into Darfur. In that context, allegations of mass detention and burial intensify fears that civilians have been trapped in conditions that humanitarian agencies can barely monitor, let alone stop.
The army's statement, if verified, would demand accountability. But even before verification, the report tells a clear story about the state of the war: the front lines are shifting, and behind them are findings that may take years to document fully. For families searching for relatives, the numbers are not abstractions. They are evidence that the war has moved from shelling and displacement into the terrain of disappearance and mass death.
The allegation also underscores how the war in Sudan is producing evidence that may take years to untangle. If hundreds of bodies were buried in mass graves, investigators will need to identify victims, determine when they died and separate battlefield deaths from custody deaths, all while access remains uneven. The army's claim that the RSF detained people in a school, if verified, would add another layer of abuse to a conflict already marked by displacement and disease. What makes the report so stark is not only the number quoted, but the picture it paints of a city emerging from occupation and discovering what was left behind. That is the kind of finding that can drive future tribunals, even if accountability is still far away.
