Hundreds Feared Dead After Attack on Last Functioning Hospital in Sudan's Al-Fashir: Humanitarian Crisis Deepens

Rights groups have expressed significant concern that the rebel takeover of al-Fashir could lead to widespread revenge killings.

The World Health Organization and a Sudanese official reported that the last operational hospital in the Sudanese city of al-Fashir was raided, with fears that hundreds may have been killed following the paramilitary force's seizure of the city this week.

Communication within the city has been completely cut off, and doctors from the hospital have been unreachable since Sunday when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured the Sudanese army's final stronghold in the city, making immediate verification of casualties impossible.

The timing of the raid remains unclear, though Sudanese officials, doctors, and activists attribute responsibility to the RSF. The paramilitary group has rejected these allegations as misinformation, claiming that all hospitals in al-Fashir had already been abandoned.

The International Organisation for Migration reports that over 36,000 people have fled al-Fashir since Sunday. However, little information exists about the fate of more than 200,000 others believed to have remained in the city during the RSF's 18-month assault and siege.

Human rights organizations have long warned that an RSF takeover of famine-stricken al-Fashir could trigger mass killings in retaliation, with escapees reporting summary executions.

Both rights groups and US officials have accused the RSF and allied militias of ethnic cleansing in Darfur, as documented by Reuters. Al-Fashir represented the army's last significant position in the vast western Darfur region amid the war that began in April 2023.

Darfur state governor Minni Minawi, a former rebel leader now allied with the army against the RSF, stated on social media platform X on Wednesday that 460 people were killed during the attack on al-Fashir's Saudi Hospital.

Minawi provided no further details and could not be reached for comment. Two Sudanese doctors' groups citing ground sources and an al-Fashir activist network believe hundreds more in makeshift facilities surrounding the hospital were also killed, in addition to those inside.

The World Health Organization confirmed on Wednesday that four doctors, a nurse, and a pharmacist were abducted from the Saudi hospital. A humanitarian source verified these kidnappings but could not confirm the death count.

A WHO spokesperson told Reuters they had verified the attack based on multiple eyewitness statements, government accounts, and visual evidence from photos and videos.

Although a video shared by Minawi purported to show the hospital attack, Reuters geolocated it to a different location - an Al-Fashir University building that former residents identified as having been used as a shelter.

Satellite imagery of the hospital from October 28, published by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, revealed clusters of white objects surrounded by red stains on the ground, which analysts indicated were consistent with human remains around the hospital.

According to al-Fashir residents, medical personnel, and humanitarian workers, the RSF repeatedly targeted hospitals in al-Fashir during the siege, using rocket fire, drones, and ground raids.

Throughout the siege, remaining doctors in al-Fashir had been treating malnutrition, trauma cases, and providing maternity care at the Saudi hospital with extremely limited supplies after all other medical facilities were abandoned due to attacks.