Displaced Sudanese who fled el-Fasher after town fell to the Speedy Assist Forces (RSF), arrive within the city of Tawila war-torn Sudan’s western Darfur area on October 28, 2025.
AFP/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
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AFP/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — For months docs on the final functioning hospital within the wartorn Sudanese metropolis of el-Fasher carried out operations by torchlight, desperately attempting to save lots of lives in probably the most unattainable circumstances.
The Saudi Maternity Hospital was a final refuge for the sick and injured within the besieged metropolis, as combating raged round them. Regardless of no electrical energy, shortages of provides, and steadily coming underneath heavy shelling, medical workers saved going.
“They are heroes, honestly,” mentioned Dr Mohamed Faisal Elsheikh, a Sudanese medical physician based mostly in Manchester and a spokesperson for the Sudan Medical doctors Community.
“They really work in a very difficult environment, they had no medical instruments, there’s no any medicines over there, there’s no electricity…and yet with all dedication and commitment…they saved as much as they could of people’s lives.”
Not. For the reason that metropolis fell to the Sudanese paramilitary group the Speedy Assist Forces (RSF) on Sunday, the docs have been kidnapped and stories have emerged of a bloodbath on the hospital.
“On 28 October, six health workers, four doctors, a nurse and a pharmacist, were abducted,” from the hospital, the World Well being Group mentioned in an announcement Wednesday. “On the same day, more than 460 patients and their companions were reportedly shot and killed in the hospital.”
WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus mentioned he was “deeply shocked” and “appalled” by the bloodbath and known as for well being services, well being staff and sufferers to be protected underneath worldwide regulation.
“Prior to this latest attack, WHO has verified 185 attacks on health care in Sudan with 1204 deaths and 416 injuries of health workers and patients since the start of the conflict in April 2023,” he mentioned.
Movies of the assault believed to have been filmed by RSF fighters themselves are circulating on-line. Whereas they can’t be independently verified by NPR, they present militia males strolling by way of the ransacked wards, stepping over piles of useless our bodies and taking pictures anybody left alive at level clean vary.
RSF chief, Common Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo has pledged to research the allegations of battle crimes by his troopers in el-Fasher – however many doubt his sincerity, as he has failed to research earlier atrocities.
Since overtaking el-Fasher– which that they had besieged for over 500 days – and chasing out the Sudanese military, movies, satellite tv for pc imagery, and testimony from those that’ve managed to flee point out the RSF has been pursuing a scorched earth coverage within the Darfuri metropolis.
The RSF has been combating the nationwide military for management of the resource-rich nation that sits on the important crossroads between North Africa, the Sahel, and the Crimson Sea in a bloody civil battle since 2023.
‘Disaster of apathy’
The group emerged from the janjaweed militia that terrorized Darfur within the early 2000s and was accused of genocide. The US has already accused the RSF and allied Arab militias of committing genocide in opposition to African ethnic teams within the present battle.
The scenario in el-Fasher was dire even earlier than the RSF overran it this week. The 12 months and a half lengthy blockade of some 250,000 civilians has led to hunger and famine.
The UN’s migration group says 26,000 folks have managed to flee for the reason that takeover. A lot of these are arriving looking for assist in the city of Tawila, in north Darfur, the place medical charity Medical doctors With out Borders is operating the closest well being level.
Medical doctors With out Borders used to offer assist to the Saudi hospital however stopped working in el-Fasher in August 2024 saying it had change into too harmful.
On Wednesday the NGO mentioned folks arriving at Tawila had been displaying “extremely alarming levels of malnutrition among women and children, which is indicative of a famine-like situation.”
The group’s Worldwide president Dr Mohamed Javid Abdelmoneim famous nonetheless, that only a few grownup males had been arriving, and mentioned this raised considerations about ethnically focused violence.
“This is testament to the horror unfolding in and around the city,” he mentioned.
One mom of six, who had fled el-Fasher however did not want to be named to guard her identification, instructed support staff from worldwide NGO Save the Youngsters what that they had endured.
“We hid the children in trenches, and we ran into abandoned buildings during the attacks. After that, we just ate umbaz (animal feed),” she mentioned.
One other lady described the lengthy trek to security, throughout which she was overwhelmed and robbed by a gang.
“We lost family members, we lost neighbors, we lost everyone,” she recounted. “We’ve been walking for the past four days from el-Fasher. A group of motorbike riders met us on the way…They killed people and insulted us a lot.”
The UN Safety Council held a gathering on the disaster Thursday.
The UN’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher mentioned the violence recollects the horrors of the genocide in Darfur 20 years in the past.
“But what is different today, we are seeing a different global reaction. One of resignation,” he mentioned. “So this is also a crisis of apathy.”
