In the late 1980s, the Sudanese regime of dictator Omar al-Bashir unleashed a militia that would come to define brutality in Africa's modern wars. They called them the Janjaweed, which literally means, "devils on horseback". Armed, mounted, and emboldened by al-Bashir's backing, these men swept across Darfur's dry plains, torching villages, looting, killing and raping without any limits, restraint, or fear of consequences. Survivors said the pattern was always the same. First came the air strikes by al-Bashir's forces, then the horsemen. Men were shot or mutilated, women gang-raped and children abducted. Some rape survivors and victims were as young as one-year-old. The Janjaweed's leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, nicknamed Hemedti, rose fast. He and his fighters claimed power, land, and Sudan's rich gold mines, while Sudan swung helplessly between generals and feeble civilian leaders.

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Fast-forward three decades. The Janjaweed have traded their horses for pickup trucks and drones. Their new identity is of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is still led by Hemedti, who stands accused of crimes against humanity.

The crisis in Sudan, called the worst humanitarian crisis, has seen tens of thousands killed and at least 12 million people displaced. About 25 million people are facing a famine-like food situation. However, the crisis has been on the world's blind spot.

Hemedti's forces captured El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur region, from the Sudanese army this week. Images and videos of mass executions are emerging from Sudan, sparking global outrage. One of the images, claimed to be from El-Fasher, shows a woman embracing her son seconds before being executed by RSF gunmen.

"Yale University released satellite images from el-Fasher, a Sudanese city in North Darfur. These images, taken from space, showed the land literally stained red in blood. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia's massacre of Darfur residents was so brutal and bloody that we can see it from space," wrote author-commentator Hen Mazzig on X on Wednesday.

"What recently happened in Al Fasher, Sudan amounts to one of the worst cases of genocide a