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Combatants laugh as they travel on the rear of a transport truck, speeding past a line of nine corpses and driving towards the setting African sun.

"Look at all this work. See this instance of ethnic cleansing," a combatant shouts.

The fighter beams as he directs the camera on his own face and his fellow militiamen, their Rapid Support Forces insignia visible: "They will all be killed this way."

The combatants are celebrating a massacre that humanitarian officials fear killed more than thousands of people in the Sudanese urban center of al-Fashir during October.

A City Cut Off from the World

After maintaining the community under siege for nearly 24 months, from late summer the militia moved to strengthen its control and restrict the surviving civilian population.

Orbital photography reveal that troops began to erect a immense earth barrier - a raised dirt embankment - around the edges of el-Fasher, blocking roads and halting aid.

As the siege intensified, seventy-eight individuals were slain in an RSF attack on a religious building on mid-September, while the UN stated dozens additional were killed in unmanned aircraft and cannon strikes on a refugee settlement in October.

Disturbing Recording Reveals Unarmed People Executed

At dawn on late October the RSF defeated the last army defenses and took control of the primary base in the community, the headquarters of the 6th Infantry Division, as the army retreated.

Perhaps the most graphic videos to surface and studied depicted the results of a massacre at a campus structure on the west of the city, where numerous lifeless forms were visible spread across the floor.

An elderly person wearing a traditional garment remained by himself surrounded by the victims. He turned to look as a militiaman armed with a rifle proceeded descending the staircase facing the victim. Raising his weapon, the fighter discharged a solitary round at the man, who dropped to the surface still.

"Why is this individual even living," one combatant shouted. "Execute this person."

Orbital photography captured on 26 October appeared to confirm that executions were also performed on the roads of el-Fasher, as reported by a study issued by the university analysis team.

An observer who provided testimony stated the individual had observed "multiple of our relatives being killed - these individuals were gathered in a specific area and each one eliminated."

Paramilitary Commanders Try to Conduct Reputation Management

Following the events that followed the massacre, paramilitary chief conceded that his forces had committed "violations" and said the events would be examined.

Included among arrested was subsequent to a analysis detailing his executions. Meticulously staged and edited video published on the paramilitary's formal social media account show the individual being taken into a detention area at a prison on the outskirts of el-Fasher.

Meanwhile, the paramilitary force and connected digital channels began attempting to reframe the story.

Posts presenting its combatants handing out assistance to inhabitants were shared by several accounts, while the paramilitary's media office released numerous videos allegedly to show the proper management of military detainees.

Regardless of the social media effort being used by the RSF, their actions in al-Fashir have generated global outrage.