El-Fasher: Last civilian hospital in Sudanese city closed after RSF attack

Doctors at one of the last functioning hospitals in the besieged Sudanese town of El-Fasher say they were forced to close the facility following the attack.

The hospital was supported by the medical aid organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which described it as the only remaining hospital in El-Fasher where injured civilians could be treated.

For several days there have been reports of grenades hitting the city’s South Hospital, causing injuries and deaths.

But now, according to eyewitnesses, fighters from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have entered the facility.

On Saturday, they drove to the hospital and opened fire. They looted medicines and medical equipment, stole an ambulance and attacked the staff.

Doctors at the hospital had already told the BBC a few days earlier that they were planning to relocate the hospital for security reasons. The hospital had been hit by mortar shells and bullets three times within ten days.

Fortunately, when the facility was attacked on Saturday, there were only ten patients and a reduced medical team in the facility, MSF says.

“The hospital is very close to the front line and will therefore remain closed for the time being,” the Sudan head of the medical aid organization told the BBC.

The fuel, electricity and water supplies at the nearby dilapidated Saudi hospital where MSF must move its operations in El-Fasher are still down, Kowalski says, and injured civilians now have nowhere to go for at least a week.

Saturday’s attack is another sign that there are no rules in Sudan’s civil war.

“Opening fire in a hospital is overstepping boundaries,” said Michel Lacharite, head of MSF’s emergency department. He called the attack “outrageous” and said “the responsibility to protect medical facilities lies with the warring parties.”

The Sudanese National Army, which fought against the RSF last year, has also been accused of widespread human rights violations.

But in this case, the RSF forced the closure of a hospital treating civilians.

The closure of the hospital represents a serious setback for the people of El-Fasher, as the hospital was the main point of contact for the treatment of war casualties.

It is “the only one equipped to treat a large number of injured people and one of two hospitals with surgical capacity,” says Doctors Without Borders. Last month alone, more than 1,300 injured people were treated there.

El-Fasher is the only town in the entire Darfur region that is still under army control.

It is widely reported that the paramilitary RSF force in Sudan is supported by the United Arab Emirates – but the authorities there deny this.

Across the country, it is estimated that more than 15,000 people have been killed and nearly nine million have been displaced since the conflict began in April 2023 – more than in any other conflict in the world.

The RSF took control of Gezira state, south of the capital Khartoum, in December and is accused of committing numerous human rights violations against the civilian population there, which the RSF denies.

Last week, at least 150 people, including 35 children, were massacred by suspected RSF forces in the village of Wad al-Nourah in Gezira state.

In Darfur, human rights groups are using rape as a weapon of war and targeting dark-skinned Masalit and other non-Arab groups as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign.

Several rounds of peace talks failed to end the war, which began with a falling out between the two generals at the head of the army and the RSF respectively.

According to UN agencies, the fighting has triggered the world’s largest refugee crisis and millions of people are facing famine as a result.