Y., a Sudanese national, originating from the city of Kebkabiya, in the State of the North Darfur, and of Fur ethnicity, applied for international protection in France, claiming a fear of persecution by members of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR) due to his ethnic and geographical origin, without benefitting from effective protection by the Sudanese authorities. The French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) rejected the request for refugee status by decision of 30 January 2026 but granted him subsidiary protection. The OFPRA found that Darfur is characterised by a situation of indiscriminate violence of exceptional intensity resulting from the armed conflict affecting that State, exposing the applicant to a risk of serious harm in case of return.
The applicant appealed this decision before the National Court of Asylum (CNDA), claiming that he is eligible for asylum.
The court found that the applicant's nationality, Fur ethnicity and origin from northern Darfur were not disputed by the OFPRA. The court further found credible that the applicant belonged to the Keira branch, since he was able to describe in detail certain rites associated with the branch, details on the founder of Fur and the distinction from the Kunjara branch.
Referencing the EUAA material ‘Country Guidance: Sudan', 23 June 2025, which covered developments for the period 1st December 2024 – 21 March 2025, the court noted that several sources cited in the report pointed to the existence of an ‘ethnic cleansing' in the area of Darfur, carried out by FSR and Arab militia on account of racial grounds. It described that racial acts against non-Arab people and ethnic groups included ‘massacres, summary executions, torture, bodily mutilation, illegal detentions, forced displacement, attacks on displaced persons' camps and villages, looting, destruction of objects essential to the survival of the civilian population'. The report noted also that a large part of the violence in Darfur is attributed to the FSR and its allies, which follow ‘an ideology of racist Arabic supremacy', with the FSR attacking localities and camps of displaced persons in Northern Darfur, driven by an ethnically motivated basis, targeting non-Arab groups, in particular Zaghawa and Fur.
In addition, the court relied on the latest report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan of the United Nations Human Rights Council, ‘Sudan: Hallmarks of Genocide in El-Fasher', 19 February 2026, which concluded that these actions exhibited the "distinct signs of genocide". The report pointed that the paramilitaries' public statements were explicitly calling for the elimination of non-Arab communities, in particular the Zaghawa and the Fur, which was inextricably linked to the crimes committed in Darfur. The mission expert stated that these crimes followed an eighteen-months siege during which the RSF deliberately imposed living conditions intended to destroy, in whole or in part, the Zaghawa and Fur communities in El Fasher.
Against this background, the CNDA affirmed that there were serious reasons to consider that, at the time of deciding on the case, Fur ethnics were exposed to violent actions which were of sufficient intensity as to qualify the area of North Darfur as being characterised by acts of persecution by the RFS and the Arab militia, which are entirely controlling that territory, without the Sudanese authorities being able to afford effective protection to this ethnic group.
Consequently, the court concluded that Y. had demonstrated a well-founded fear of persecution by the RFS in the event of return to his country of origin, on account of his membership of the Fur ethnic group and his origin from Darfur. The court found that the applicant had provided a detailed and credible account of the violent racist attack of which he was the victim in September 2023 at the hands of Arab militias, including specific information regarding the racist insults directed at him, the blows inflicted on him, and the assistance he received from a neighbour after he lost consciousness. To support his account, the applicant adduced a medical certificate issued on 18 September 2025 which confirmed that his injuries were compatible with his account. Also, the court noted that the psychological certificates issued the same day attested his vulnerability associated with fears of previously demonstrated persecution.
In view of the above-mentioned, the CNDA granted the applicant refugee status.