Sudan: With hundreds feared dead, WHO condemns RSF’s massacre at El-Fasher’s only hospital

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday condemned the “horrific” massacre at the only functional hospital in Sudan’s El-Fasher city.

The paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is feared to have killed 460 people at Saudi Maternity Hospital amid ongoing mass killings in El-Fasher.

Testimonies of escapees and open-source investigators’ research have shown that the RSF and its allies are systematically killing people in cold blood in El-Fasher. While it is nearly impossible at this point to determine an exact toll, thousands are feared dead across the city in ongoing mass killings.

The RSF captured El-Fasher, the last holdout of the Sudanese military in the western Darfur region , on Sunday. With this victory, the RSF gained control of the entire Darfur region and effectively split the country into western and eastern halves.

For months, there had been fears that an RSF victory in Darfur could result in genocide. Between 2003 and 2005, the RSF killed around 300,000 people from the non-Arab Masalit, Fur, and Zaghawa communities in what is known as the ‘Darfur Genocide’.

Fourth attack on hospital in El-Fasher, says WHO

The WHO stated that the latest attack was the fourth time in a month that the Saudi Maternity Hospital had been targeted.

The WHO reported that a nurse was killed on Sunday and three other health workers were injured, according to AFP.

Two days later, six health workers —including four doctors, a nurse, and a pharmacist— were abducted, the WHO said.

Additionally, the WHO has received reports that more than 460 patients and their companions were shot and killed in the hospital.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “WHO is appalled and deeply shocked by reports of the tragic killing of more than 460 patients and companions at Saudi Maternity Hospital in El-Fasher. All attacks on health care must stop immediately and unconditionally.”

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Independent open-source investigators from Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) have also pointed to a massacre at the hospital.

In satellite imagery of Saudi Hospital, piles of what appear to be bodies are visible near the hospital, along with reddish discolouration of the earth, suggesting pools of blood. Open-source investigators have noted that the scale of ongoing mass killings in El-Fasher is such that pools of blood are visible from satellites.

In a statement, the WHO said the humanitarian crisis in El-Fasher is “rapidly worsening”. It noted that “escalating violence, siege conditions and rising hunger and disease are killing civilians, including children, and collapsing an already-fragile health system.”

RSF leader vows to keep going

Despite the international outrage, RSF chief Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, better known as Hemedti, has vowed that the country would be unified “by peace or through war”.

Currently, the RSF controls around a third of Sudan, primarily in the west and southwest. The Sudanese military holds the east and the capital, Khartoum.

In the ongoing Sudanese civil war, the RSF and its allies have already killed over 17,000 people in Darfur in a series of massacres. In one such massacre in El-Geneina, the United Nations (UN) reported that up to 15,000 people were killed.

In addition to mass killings, the RSF and its allies have been widely accused of committing systematic sexual violence against women during the conflict, including rape, gang rape, forced marriages, and sexual slavery.

The ongoing Sudanese civil war began in 2023 following the collapse of an uneasy power-sharing arrangement between the country’s military, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, led by Hemedti. The RSF is widely believed to be supported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).