Militia Attack on Darfur Hospital Came in Waves, Hundreds Killed in El-Fasher Massacre

CAIRO, November 1: The World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed horrifying new details about the massacre at the Saudi Hospital in El-Fasher, in Sudan’s Darfur region, where at least 460 people were killed this week in one of the bloodiest incidents since the country’s war began two years ago.

According to WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier, armed groups attacked the hospital in multiple waves, abducting medical staff before returning to execute patients, health workers, and civilians who had sought refuge inside.

“Gunmen came to the hospital at least three times,” Lindmeier said during a UN briefing in Geneva. “They first abducted health workers — at least six remain missing. Later, they returned and started killing. On the third visit, they finished off what was still standing.”

The assault occurred on Tuesday, shortly after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary group, seized El-Fasher, the last Sudanese army stronghold in Darfur, following an 18-month siege.

The Saudi Hospital had been the only operational medical facility in El-Fasher throughout the siege. Following the attack, no humanitarian health presence remains in the city, said Dr. Teresa Zakaria, WHO’s head of humanitarian operations.

Graphic videos circulating online appear to show bodies scattered across hospital corridors and armed men shooting victims at close range. However, the footage has not been independently verified.

The RSF denied involvement, releasing a video Thursday claiming its fighters were “providing aid and treating the wounded” at the same facility. The authenticity of that video remains unclear.

El-Fasher, located about 800 kilometers southwest of Khartoum, is now cut off from the outside world. Communication lines are down, and most aid groups have withdrawn amid continuing violence.

The UN migration agency (IOM) reported that more than 62,000 people fled the city between Sunday and Wednesday, though only a fraction made it to Tawila, a nearby town hosting refugees under the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

At least 450 patients have been admitted to Tawila’s hospital with gunshot wounds, malnutrition, and trauma-related injuries, local officials said.

“People are arriving with broken limbs and untreated wounds from weeks or even months ago,” said Adam Rojal, spokesperson for a Darfur displacement network. “Many children came without parents  their families were killed or lost during the chaos.”

One survivor, Fatima Abdulrahim, 70, described escaping the city after five days of terror, hiding in trenches and surviving on grass.

“The dead were everywhere,” she said. “I had to cover my grandchildren’s eyes so they wouldn’t see.”

The fall of El-Fasher marks a turning point in Sudan’s devastating civil war, cementing the RSF’s control over most of Darfur a region roughly the size of Spain.

Since the conflict erupted in April 2023, more than 40,000 people have been killed, though aid agencies say the real toll is likely far higher.

Over 14 million Sudanese have been displaced, famine is spreading, and disease outbreaks are claiming thousands of lives.

The RSF, whose ranks include many fighters from the Arab Janjaweed militias, has been repeatedly accused of mass killings, ethnic cleansing, and sexual violence, echoing the atrocities of Darfur’s 2000s genocide that killed 300,000 people.

With El-Fasher’s collapse, analysts warn that Sudan could effectively split in two  with the RSF controlling the west and Darfur, while the army retains control of Khartoum and the country’s north and east.