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Dead bodies on floor, wounded pleading for help: Inside Sudan hospital siege
Sudan's paramilitary forces killed hundreds of people, including patients and their attendants, in a deadly siege.
After the mass killings at Sudan hospital, UN chief Antonio Guterres called for an immediate end to military escalation as Sudan's paramilitary forces reportedly killed 460 people, including patients, at a hospital after they seized the provincial capital of North Darfur over the weekend.
The patients and their attendants were reportedly killed Tuesday at Saudi Hospital by the Rapid Support Forces fighters in the city of el-Fasher, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, said.
Eyewitness account
Witnesses recounted horrific details of the assault as The Associated Press quoted them saying that the RSF fighters went from house to house in el-Fasher beating and shooting at people, including women and children. Many died of gunshot wounds in the streets, some while trying to flee to safety, they said.
Governor of Darfur Mini Minawi shared a minute-long video on social media showing RSF fighters inside the Saudi Hospital as bodies lay on the floor in pools of blood.
Fighters from the RSF “cold-bloodedly killed everyone they found inside the Saudi Hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present in the wards,” according to the Sudan Doctors Network, a medical group tracking the war.
The Associated Press spoke to Amena, a witness of the siege, who was among three dozen people detained for a day by RSF fighters in an abandoned house close to the Saudi Hospital in el-Fasher.
Amena managed to flee along with four others and arrived exhausted and dehydrated early Tuesday in the nearby town of Tawila, around 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of el-Fasher, which already hosts over 650,000 displaced.
The U.N. migration agency said more than 36,000 people have fled el-Fasher, mostly to rural areas around it, since Sunday.
Trauma and displacement
U.N. refugee agency official Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet said the new arrivals told of widespread killings motivated by ethnic and political differences, including reports of people with disabilities shot dead because they were unable to flee, and others shot as they tried to escape.
Another witness Tajal-Rahman said the hospital looked like a killing field with bodies all around and people bleeding while there was no one to help them.
Both Amena and Tajal-Rahman said RSF fighters tortured and beat the detainees and shot at least four people Monday who later died of wounds. They also sexually assaulted women and girls, they said.
In Tawila, a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders received many patients since Oct. 18 suffering from injuries related to bombings or gunshots, according to Giulia Chiopris, a pediatrician at the hospital.
She said the hospital also received a high number of malnourished and severely dehydrated children, many of them unaccompanied or orphaned, who had fled el-Fasher.
“We are seeing a lot a lot of cases of trauma related to the last bombing and a huge number of orphans,” she said.
She recalled receiving three young siblings, ranging in age from 40 days old to 4 years, whose family was killed in the city. They were brought to the hospital Monday night by strangers, she said.
Sudan's crisis
Over 40,000 people have been killed in the last two years amid fight for control of Sudan. The rights groups believe the numbers could be higher as the current situation in Sudan is being termed as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with over 14 million displaced. The capture of el-Fasher by the powerful Arab-led force raises fears that Africa’s third-largest nation may split again, nearly 15 years after oil-rich South Sudan gained independence following years of civil war.
Sudanese residents and aid workers revealed harrowing details of atrocities by the RSF after it seized the army’s last stronghold in Darfur following more than 500 days of siege.
RSF commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who is sanctioned by the U.S., acknowledged what he called “abuses” by his forces. In his first comments since the fall of el-Fasher, posted Wednesday on the Telegram messaging app, he said an investigation was opened. He did not elaborate.
What has the UN said?
UN chief Guterres said in a statement he was "gravely concerned by the recent military escalation" in El-Fasher, calling for “an immediate end to the siege & hostilities”, while RSF's Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, has vowed the country would be unified by "peace or through war".
