Militia reportedly kills hundreds at hospital in Sudan

Sudan’s paramilitary forces killed hundreds of people, including patients in a hospital, after seizing the city of El Fasher in the western Darfur region over the weekend, according to the United Nations, displaced residents and aid workers, who gave harrowing details of atrocities.

- By Samy Magdy

Tedros Adhanom Ghe-breyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, saidina statement that the 460 patients and companions were reportedly killed at Saudi Maternity Hospital in El Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur. He said the WHO was “appalled and deeply shocked” by the reports.

The Sudan Doctors Network, amedical group tracking the war, said fighters from the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, on Tuesday “cold-bloodedly killed everyone they found inside the Saudi Hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present in the wards.”

Sudanese residents and aid workers provided harrowing details of atrocities by the RSF The group, which has been fighting since 2023 to take over Africa’s third-largest nation, seized the army’s last stronghold in Darfur after a more than 500-day siege.

“The Janjaweed showed no mercy for anyone,” said Umm Amena, a mother of four children who fled the city on Monday after two days, using a Sudanese term for the precursor to the RSF.

RSF commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Da-galo on Wednesday acknowledged what he called “abuses” by his forces. In his first comments since the fall of El Fasher, posted on the messaging app Telegram, he said an investigation was launched. He did not elaborate.

The RSF has been accused by the U.N. and rights groups of atrocities throughout the war, including a 2023 attack on another Darfur city, Geneina, where hundreds were killed.

Amena was among three dozen people, mostly women and children, who were detained for a day by RSF fighters in an abandoned house close to the Saudi Hospital in El Fasher.