Sudan: Around 20 Killed in a Single Day as RSF Shells Hospital in El-Fasher
Sudan Events – Agencies
At least 20 civilians were killed within 24 hours after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shelled one of the last functioning hospitals in the besieged city of El-Fasher, in Sudan’s Darfur region, according to medical sources cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The RSF is currently waging its most intense offensive yet on El-Fasher in a bid to seize control of the city.
Activists report that El-Fasher — the last major city in Darfur not under RSF control — has become “an open-air morgue bleeding from every side.”
The war, raging since April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF, has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions, and left around 25 million suffering from acute hunger. The United Nations has described it as “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”
Wednesday’s shelling left at least 12 people dead — including a doctor and a nurse — and 17 others wounded, according to colleagues who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It was the second attack on the same hospital in less than 24 hours. On Tuesday, the hospital’s maternity ward was struck by a drone, killing eight people and injuring seven others, the sources said. The strike also “damaged buildings and equipment,” they added.
The facility is one of the few medical centers still operating in El-Fasher after most hospitals were repeatedly bombed and forced to close.
90% of Sudan’s Hospitals Out of Service
Hospitals across Sudan are frequently bombed, looted, or occupied. About 90% of the country’s hospitals are now out of service, according to the Sudanese Doctors’ Union. Dozens of medical staff have been killed in strikes that the United Nations has often described as deliberate.
Exhausted medical teams are struggling to treat the wounded from daily attacks. The UN says that about 80% of families in El-Fasher who need medical care cannot access it.
Doctors relying on satellite internet to bypass communication blackouts said they have been forced to use pieces of mosquito nets as makeshift bandages to cover wounds.
After 18 months of RSF-imposed siege, nearly everything has run out in the city of 400,000 people. Even livestock feed — which many families resorted to eating to survive — has disappeared, with a single sack now costing hundreds of dollars.
Most communal kitchens that once provided food to residents have shut down due to severe shortages, according to local resistance committees and volunteer groups coordinating aid efforts.
One Million People Flee
According to UN figures released Tuesday, more than one million people have fled El-Fasher since the war began — about 10% of all those displaced within Sudan.
Once the largest city in the region, El-Fasher’s population has declined by about 62%, from over one million to roughly 413,000, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Residents say daily strikes force them to spend most of their time underground in makeshift shelters dug in their backyards.
Since August, the RSF has intensified its bombardment of El-Fasher, which it has besieged since May 2024. In recent weeks, the militia has captured large parts of the city.
Satellite images analyzed by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab show that the RSF has built a 68-kilometer wall around El-Fasher, leaving only one exit — where civilians are reportedly extorted for passage.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned of “widespread ethnically driven attacks and atrocities” in the city, where the RSF has taken control of several famine-stricken displacement camps, killing hundreds.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said Thursday: “After more than 500 days of siege and relentless fighting, El-Fasher is on the brink of an even greater catastrophe unless urgent action is taken to lift the armed blockade and protect civilians.”
He called for the establishment of a “safe corridor” to allow those wishing to leave to do so “voluntarily,” and urged immediate humanitarian access to the city.
