The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Sudan Doctors Network have reported that hundreds of patients and medical staff were killed inside a hospital in El Fasher, following the Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) seizure of the city on Sunday.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed shock over reports that more than 460 people were killed at the Saudi Maternity Hospital, calling the news “appalling and deeply distressing.” In a separate statement, the Sudan Doctors Network accused the RSF of executing “everyone they found inside the hospital.”
El Fasher, once home to more than a million people, had been under siege by RSF forces since May 2024. The paramilitary group’s capture of the city marks a critical turning point in Sudan’s civil war, giving it full control of all five regional capitals in Darfur.
A War-Torn Nation
Fighting between Sudan’s army and the RSF began in April 2023 after a power struggle within the country’s military leadership erupted into open conflict. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) now control much of the north and east, while the RSF dominates the west and southwest, including Darfur.
In August 2024, famine was declared in the Zamzam camp for displaced people south of El Fasher. When the RSF seized the camp in April, as many as 2,000 civilians were killed. The group’s takeover of El Fasher had been widely feared, with experts warning it could mirror the massacre in Geneina in 2023, where up to 15,000 civilians were killed, mostly from non-Arab communities.
A Pattern of Atrocities
The RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militias, which carried out atrocities in Darfur in the early 2000s under former president Omar al-Bashir. In January 2025, the U.S. government officially declared that the RSF had committed genocide a designation that many Sudanese believe reflects the group’s ongoing campaign of ethnic violence.
Since capturing El Fasher, the RSF has been accused by the Joint Forces, a coalition allied with the Sudanese army, of executing more than 2,000 unarmed civilians. RSF commander Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, acknowledged that “abuses” had occurred and said an internal investigation was underway, though no details were provided.
Evidence of Mass Killings
Satellite imagery analyzed by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab between 27–28 October revealed “evidence consistent with mass killing” near the Saudi Maternity Hospital and other locations across the city. Researchers identified clusters of human-sized objects and signs of possible mass graves near RSF-controlled sites.
Further analysis indicated continued “systematic killing” at an RSF detention facility housed in a former children’s hospital and along fortified earth walls in eastern El Fasher. Caitlin Howarth, Director of Conflict Analytics at Yale, said that while the exact number of deaths remains unknown, “we’re not looking at small numbers we’re looking at hundreds, and eventually, there will be thousands.”
Civilian Suffering
Survivors fleeing the city have described scenes of terror, looting, and sexual violence. Witnesses told the Associated Press that RSF fighters went door to door, shooting civilians including women and children and leaving bodies strewn across the streets.
“It was like a killing field,” said Tajal-Rahman, a displaced resident now sheltering at Tawila camp, 60 kilometers west of El Fasher. “Bodies everywhere and people bleeding, with no one to help them.”
The humanitarian crisis continues to deepen as thousands attempt to escape the violence, many dying in the desert before reaching displacement camps. International organizations have warned that the true scale of the atrocities in El Fasher may never be fully known.
