A Sudanese paramilitary force has been accused of massacring hundreds of patients and medical staff inside a hospital in El Fasher, following its seizure of the city. Medical groups and international health officials report that over 460 people were killed at the facility.
The World Health Organization expressed profound shock at the scale of the killings, while a monitoring group for the country’s medical community stated the victims were executed in cold blood. The assault occurred just after the paramilitary group, known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), announced it had taken full control of the strategic city.
The conflict between the national army and the RSF erupted in April 2023 from a power struggle within the military leadership. The fighting quickly spread from the capital across the nation. With the fall of El Fasher, the RSF now commands all five regional capitals in the Darfur area, while combat persists in southern regions.
El Fasher, previously home to more than a million residents, had endured a siege by the paramilitary forces since May 2024. The city’s humanitarian situation had already reached catastrophic levels, with famine declared last year in a massive displacement camp on its outskirts. An earlier RSF assault on that camp in April resulted in as many as 2,000 deaths.
International analysts had warned that an RSF takeover of El Fasher would likely mirror the group’s capture of another regional capital in 2023, where thousands of civilians from non-Arab communities were slaughtered.
The RSF commander acknowledged “abuses” by his forces in his first public comments since the city’s fall, announcing an investigation but providing no specifics.
Satellite imagery analysis conducted this week revealed disturbing evidence at the hospital complex. Researchers identified three clusters of unidentified white objects and what appeared to be blood discoloration on the ground that had not been present the day before. Some objects measured between one and two meters in length—consistent with human remains.
The same analysis found further evidence suggesting mass killings at a former detention site and systematic executions at defensive earthworks surrounding the city. Conflict analysts caution that the final death toll will likely reach into the thousands, with many victims perishing while attempting to escape through the desert.
Civilians who managed to flee described fighters moving house-to-house, beating and shooting residents including women and children. Many died from gunshot wounds in the streets while trying to escape.
“The scene was a killing field,” recounted one survivor now in a displacement camp. “Bodies were everywhere, people were bleeding, with no one to help them.”
