The Sudanese insurgent militia known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) overran the city of al-Fashir and raided its last functioning hospital this week, reportedly killing hundreds of people and displacing thousands of others.
The civilian transitional government of Sudan was overthrown in a 2021 coup led by Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The RSF is a paramilitary group descended from the infamously brutal Janjaweed militia, which began as gangs of Arabic-speaking nomads that were armed and turned into shock troops by former dictator Omar al-Bashir. The U.S. government accused the Janjaweed of committing genocide in 2004.
Burhan and Dagalo turned against each other in 2023, launching an incredibly brutal civil war marked by atrocities against civilians from both sides. Over 40,000 people have been killed in the war so far, by the most conservative estimate, and some 12 million have been driven from their homes. The United Nations considers Sudan to be one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
The city of al-Fashir was the last stronghold of the SAF in the Darfur region. It was under siege from RSF forces for over 500 days before it was overrun by Dagalo’s militia, which many local residents still refer to as the Janjaweed.
“The Janjaweed showed no mercy for anyone,” one local resident said of the slaughter that began on Sunday.
“It was like a killing field,” said another. “Bodies everywhere, and people bleeding, and no one to help them.”
Eyewitnesses reported RSF fighters went house-to-house after they took control of al-Fashir, beating and shooting civilians, including women and children. Some of the victims died in the streets from their wounds. Eyewitnesses also reported cases of torture and sexual assault.
The invading force soon converged on the Saudi Maternity Hospital, the last functioning hospital in al-Fashir, and began attacking staff and patients.
The Sudan Doctors Network said the RSF “cold-bloodedly killed everyone they found inside the Saudi Hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present in the wards.”
The World Health Organization condemned the attack on Thursday, reporting that at least 460 patients and their companions were killed, along with numerous health workers who were either killed or kidnapped.
W.H.O. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “appalled and deeply shocked” by the attack on the hospital.
“Prior to this latest attack, WHO has verified 185 attacks on health care in Sudan with 1204 deaths and 416 injuries of health workers and patients since the start of the conflict in April 2023. Forty-nine of these attacks occurred this year alone, killing 966 people,” he noted.
W.H.O. called for “an immediate end to hostilities in al-Fashir and all of Sudan,” plus protection for civilian and humanitarian workers, and unimpeded access to humanitarian aid. According to the U.N. organization, some 200,000 people are trapped in occupied al-Fashir and dealing with an outbreak of cholera, while supplies of food and medicine are dwindling.
“With fighters pushing further into the city and escape routes cut off, hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped and terrified — shelled, starving, and without access to food, healthcare or safety,” said U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher.
The Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at the Yale School of Public Health published a report on Monday that said mass executions in al-Fashir were visible in satellite photographs. The photos also revealed large portions of the city were “carpet-bombed” by the SAF during their struggle to retain control.
“Al-Fashir appears to be in a systematic and intentional process of ethnic cleansing of Fur, Zaghawa, and Berti indigenous non-Arab communities through forced displacement and summary execution,” the HRL said.
“The actions by RSF presented in this report may be consistent with war crimes and crimes against humanity (CAH) and may rise to the level of genocide,” the report concluded.
At a press briefing in Geneva on Friday, the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) estimated that hundreds of civilians have been killed or taken captive since the RSF overran al-Fashir.
“Witnesses confirm RSF personnel selected women and girls and raped them at gunpoint, forcing the remaining displaced persons — around 100 families — to leave the location amid shooting and intimidation of older residents,” said OHCHR spokesman Seif Magango.
The U.N. Security Council (UNSC) issued a statement on Thursday condemning the RSF assault on al-Fashir and demanding immediate “de-escalation.”
UNSC “condemned reported atrocities being perpetrated by the RSF against the civilian population, including summary executions and arbitrary detentions, and expressed grave concern at the heightened risk of large-scale atrocities, including ethnically motivated atrocities.”
Gen. Mohamed Dagalo, the RSF commander commonly known by his nickname “Hemedti,” issued a brief statement on Thursday amid growing international outrage at the actions of his forces.
Dagalo said he felt “sorry” for the suffering inflicted on al-Fashir, and said “violations” by his soldiers would be “investigated” by a committee that just arrived in the conquered city. Skeptical observers noted that Dagalo has promised to “investigate” RSF atrocities before but has never made good on those promises. Meanwhile, other RSF spokesmen denied that a slaughter was perpetrated at the Saudi Maternity Hospital.
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