The CNDA granted refugee protection to a Zaghawa man from North Darfur, whose ethnic group is particularly targeted by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Arab militias in Sudan.

M., a national of Sudan from the city of El Fasher in North Darfur State and of Zaghawa ethnicity, requested international protection in France, claiming that he feared being persecuted if returned to his country of origin, by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which accuses him of collaborating with rebel movements on account of his Zaghawa ethnicity. He also invoked being at risk of serious harm because of the general insecurity prevailing in Sudan. In February 2024, members of the RSF entered the family home searching for him and accusing him of collaborating with rebel movements. His mother received death threats and he fled to his uncle’s home in another neighbourhood of El Fasher. Following a bombing that damaged his uncle’s home and killed his cousin, he moved to another neighbourhood. In December 2024, when he wanted to reach his uncle’s neighbourhood, he met with RSFs and fled despite bullets being fired at him. Fearing for his safety, he left Sudan on 20 December 2024.

On 15 September 2025, the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) rejected the request for international protection.

The applicant appealed this decision before the National Court of Asylum (CNDA).

The CNDA allowed the appeal and considered as established the applicant’s origin from the North Darfur region, specifically El Fasher, and his Zaghawa ethnicity, as he was fluent in the Zaghawa language and he demonstrated solid topographical and toponymic knowledge of his city and region of origin.

The court also concluded that the Zaghawa were being subjected to serious and systematic persecution by the RSF and Arab militias in North Darfur. The court relied in particular on the country of origin information reports of the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) Security situation in Sudan (11 February 2025), Sudan: Country Focus (April 2024) as well as on the EUAA’s Country Guidance: Sudan (23 June 2025), which emphasise that the abuses perpetrated by the RSF and allied militias, including summary executions, forced displacement, arson attacks and a rapidly increasing number of sexual assaults, were ethnically motivated. Information from ACLED also emphasised that attacks disproportionately targeted the Zaghawa and there were extrajudicial killings, shelling on IDP settlements, torture, widespread destruction of property and looting. Moreover, sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated by RSFs was also documented by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Furthermore, the court observed that the sources consulted showed that the situation had worsened since the resurgence in April 2023 of the armed conflict between the RSF and the Sudanese armed forces. In addition, the court noted that the targeting of the Zaghawa population by Arab armed militias had already been documented for many years, as it had also done in a previous decision (CNDA, 17014903 C, 3 December 2018).

Thus, the applicant was provided refugee protection due to well-founded fears of persecution based on his ethnicity.