Sudan demands accountability after RSF's raid on Al Fasher hospital kills patients, medical staff

Sudan called on the international community on Thursday to hold the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) accountable for killing hundreds of patients and medical staff in Al Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur state.

“We condemn the massacre committed by the RSF militias at the Saudi Hospital in Al Fasher, which left 460 patients and their companions dead,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.

It also denounced the killing of 12 medical personnel by the paramilitary group in the city of Bara in North Kordofan state.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that more than 460 patients and companions had been killed at the Saudi Maternity Hospital in Al Fasher.

'Not a field for settling scores'

Sudanese Prime Minister Kamal Idris called on the UN Security Council to take “practical measures” to ensure the protection of civilians and hold accountable those responsible for the “criminal acts” in Al Fasher.

“What happened in Al Fasher, the killings and terror, are war crimes, genocide, and ethnic cleansing against an ancient people,” he said in a televised speech.

“Sudan is not a field for settling scores nor a stage for false narratives,” he added, without elaborating further.

The RSF seized Al Fasher on Sunday following heavy clashes with the Sudanese army. The city had already been under siege by the paramilitary group since May 2024. Several local and international reports indicate mass killings, systematic ethnic cleansing, and torture of civilians by the RSF in the city.

'War crimes, genocide'

Meanwhile, the Joint Force of Armed Movements in Darfur, which fights alongside the Sudanese army, accused the RSF of committing “war crimes, genocide, and forced displacement” in El-Fasher and called for designating the group as a “terrorist organization.”

“The RSF militias have committed the most heinous crimes against humanity in Al Fasher since the war began – war crimes, genocide, forced displacement, and systematic policies aimed at uprooting the population and erasing their presence,” it said in a statement.

The Joint Force comprises movements that signed the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement, most notably the Justice and Equality Movement led by Jibril Ibrahim and the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Darfur Governor Minni Arko Minnawi.

“We possess facts, field testimonies, and video documentation that incriminate everyone involved in these crimes and expose the systematic killings,” it said.

Hundreds flee to Chad

Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that 1,750 people had fled to Chad on Wednesday from the border area of Tina in North Darfur due to worsening insecurity.

The Sudanese army controls the Tina area, about 400 kilometres northwest of Al Fasher, near the Chadian border.

Since April 15, 2023, the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a war that numerous regional and international mediations have failed to end. The conflict has killed about 20,000 people and displaced over 15 million others as refugees and internally displaced persons, according to UN and local reports.