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.
After 18 months of besieging el-Fasher, the RSF captured the city - a major victory pushing the army out of its last foothold in the vast Darfur region.
The HRL has been monitoring the situation in the city for months, and its latest report is part of efforts to understand the extent of the violence suffered by the city's residents.
Fresh analysis of satellite imagery found clusters in multiple locations changing in size in the weeks after el-Fasher fell, demonstrating continued efforts by the RSF to clean up evidence of massacres.
The UN estimates roughly 250,000 people were still trapped in the city, with less than half that number thought to have arrived in external camps for displaced people.
More than 13 million people are believed to have been displaced since the war began in April 2023.
