Hundreds Killed in Sudan Hospital Attack Following Paramilitary Seizure of El-Fasher

Hundreds of people, including patients and companions, were reportedly killed by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after they seized control of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, over the weekend, escalating the ongoing conflict in the region.

The World Health Organization (WHO) stated it was “appalled and deeply shocked” by reports that 460 patients and their caregivers were killed at Saudi Maternity Hospital in el-Fasher. The Sudan Doctors Network reported that RSF fighters “cold-bloodedly killed everyone they found inside” the hospital on Tuesday. Witnesses described scenes of widespread violence, with fighters going house-to-house, beating and shooting civilians, including women and children. The escalating violence threatens to destabilize the already fragile humanitarian situation in Darfur, a region with a history of conflict.

RSF commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo acknowledged “abuses” by his forces in a statement posted Wednesday, announcing an investigation, but provided no further details. U.N. officials and aid workers on the ground report that approximately 35,000 people have fled el-Fasher since Sunday, joining over 650,000 already displaced in the area. Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet, a U.N. refugee agency official, reported accounts of ethnically and politically motivated killings, including the targeting of people with disabilities. You can learn more about the ongoing crisis in Sudan from Doctors Without Borders.

Satellite imagery analyzed by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) corroborates reports of executions and mass killings around the Saudi Hospital and a former Children’s Hospital. “It was a like a killing field,” said Tajal-Rahman, a resident who fled to Tawila. Global outrage has followed the reports, with calls for accountability and increased pressure to end the violence, including a push by U.S. Senator Jim Risch to designate the RSF as a foreign terrorist organization; for more information on the conflict, see Human Rights Watch’s coverage of Sudan.

Aid organizations are struggling to respond to the growing needs, and officials warn that the true scale of the atrocities may be significantly undercounted. The WHO and other agencies are working to verify the reports and provide assistance to those affected.