At least 70 people were killed in an assault on the only operational hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, as the country’s civil war escalates, according to the head of the World Health Organization on Sunday.
The attack on the Saudi Teaching Maternal Hospital, attributed to the Rapid Support Forces by local authorities, comes amid reports of the group suffering significant losses to the Sudanese military and its allies, commanded by army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry condemned the assault, describing it as “a violation of international law.”
Meanwhile, international efforts to mediate the conflict and apply pressure—such as U.S. accusations of genocide by the RSF and sanctions against Burhan—have failed to halt the violence.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reported the death toll on social media, posting: “The appalling attack on Saudi Hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, led to 19 injuries and 70 deaths among patients and companions. At the time of the attack, the hospital was packed with patients receiving care.”
Tedros also noted a separate attack on another health facility in Al Malha.
“We continue to call for a cessation of all attacks on health care in Sudan, and to allow full access for the swift restoration of the facilities that have been damaged,” he added. “Above all, Sudan’s people need peace. The best medicine is peace.”
Although Tedros refrained from naming the perpetrators, local officials and Sudan’s Foreign Ministry accused the RSF of carrying out the hospital strike using drones.
The Foreign Ministry characterized the incident as a “massacre.”
U.N. official Clementine Nkweta-Salami recently warned of worsening conditions in El Fasher, where the RSF had issued an ultimatum for forces allied to the Sudanese military to leave.
“Since May 2024, El Fasher has been under RSF siege,” she stated, adding that civilians had already endured months of violence and human rights abuses. “Their lives now hang in the balance due to an increasingly precarious situation.”
In a statement, the RSF denied responsibility for the attack on the hospital and instead accused Sudan’s military of launching the assault, though they provided no evidence for their claim.
El Fasher, located over 800 kilometers southwest of Khartoum, has become a refuge for over one million people, many displaced by the ongoing war.
The Saudi hospital, situated near the city’s airport, has been a critical lifeline despite repeated shelling. Medical staff have continued their work under dire conditions, often performing surgeries by cellphone light amid the chaos.
The RSF has recently faced significant setbacks, including the reported loss of Sudan’s largest oil refinery near Khartoum, a vital asset for the country’s economy.
The military also claimed to have broken an RSF siege on the Signal Corps headquarters in northern Khartoum, while the rebels insisted they were “tightening the noose” around the base.
The roots of Sudan’s current conflict trace back to the removal of former dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019 following a popular uprising.
A fragile transition to democracy was derailed in 2021 when Burhan and RSF leader Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo staged a military coup. Fighting between their forces broke out in April 2023, leading to a brutal war marked by atrocities and severe humanitarian crises.
Al-Bashir, charged with genocide by the International Criminal Court for atrocities committed in Darfur in the early 2000s, once commanded the Janjaweed militia, which later evolved into the RSF. Rights groups and the U.N. have accused the RSF of targeting ethnic African communities in the ongoing conflict.
Since the war began, over 28,000 people have been killed, and millions displaced, with famine driving some to eat grass to survive. Some estimates suggest the death toll is far higher.
On Sunday, Gen. Burhan visited the military’s General Command headquarters in Khartoum for the first time since the conflict began in 2023.
Speaking to state-run media, he expressed confidence in the military’s progress.
“The armed forces are in their best condition, and we will move forward with the determination of our people to eliminate the rebellion in all of Sudan,” he said.
