Brutal attack on a maternity hospital in el Flasher, Sudan on October 26, leaves 460 people dead

The Saudi Maternity Hospital in El Fasher, the city’s last remaining hospital, was on Sunday ‘attacked for the fourth time in a month, killing one nurse and injuring three other health workers’

Two days later, ‘six health workers, four doctors, a nurse and a pharmacist, were abducted’ and ‘more than 460 patients and their companions were shot in the hospital

Footage of the carnage resulting from the hospital massacre showed bodies scattered across the floor among debris and destroyed equipment

Genocide happened just days after a 48-hour killing spree saw more than 2,000 civilians executed by RSF paramilitary rebels

The Saudi Maternity Hospital in El Fasher, the city’s last remaining hospital, was on Sunday ‘attacked for the fourth time in a month, killing one nurse and injuring three other health workers’ – WHO sources

Nearly 500 civilians have been killed in a maternity hospital massacre in Sudan. A reported death toll was 460 people, killed by RSF paramilitary rebels at the Saudi Maternity Hospital in el Fasher On Sunday.
The massacre happened a few hours after a 48-hour, [October 25 and 26], killing spree saw more than 2,000 civilians executed by the paramilitary rebels who overran the city, driving out the troops of the Sudanese Army, following an eighteen month siege.
According to a World Health Organization report, the city’s last remaining hospital, was attacked on October 26 – ‘the fourth [attack] in a month, killing one nurse and injuring three other health workers’.
Two days later, ‘six health workers, four doctors, a nurse and a pharmacist, were abducted’ and ‘more than 460 patients and their companions were reportedly shot and killed in the hospital,’ by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries.

Footage purportedly showing the aftermath of the massacre captured bodies scattered across the floor amid debris – The maternity hospital massacre left 460 people dead just days after a 48-hour killing spree saw more than 2,000 civilians executed by RSF paramilitary rebels

Available footage of carnage left behind in the hospital attack shows bodies strewn across the floor among debris and damaged equipment.
One witness at the Saudi Maternity Hospital in el Fasher recounts the genocide: ‘I was performing surgery in the hospital when heavy shelling occurred. A mortar hit the hospital. I was so worried because the woman’s wounds were open, and everyone was running around me,’ Dr Suhiba, a gynecologists at the hospital told UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. 

RSF rebels led by General Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemedti’ Daglo, [photo],is battling for control of Darfur with Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) loyal to army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan for control of the country. al-Buran was head of Sudan’s Sovereign Council during the transitional period. Dagalo was his deputy  

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) are loyal to Army General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, [photo], considered to be the de facto leader of Sudan. al-Burhan and Daglo, both occupied powerful positions on the Transitional Military Council and the Sovereign Council until 2021, having joined forces in a 2019 coup that toppled the 30-year dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir 

Sudan plunged into the current conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions about the future of the country erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) loyal to Army General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF paramilitary rebel group led by al-Buran’s former deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemedti’ Daglo. 
Following the most recent incident, allies of the army, the Joint Forces, said on Tuesday that the RSF ‘committed heinous crimes against innocent civilians, where more than 2,000 unarmed citizens were executed and killed on October 26 and 27, most of them women, children and the elderly’. 

Video emerged of a notoriously blood thirsty RSF rebel pointing his weapon at unarmed civilians sitting on the ground before he shot them at point blank range

The total death toll following the fall of el Fasher has not been confirmed, but satellite images taken immediately after the city fell into rebel hands depicted evidence of the mass killings. 
Body-sized objects were seen in satellite images clustered around vehicles and nearby an RSF sand berm built around the city.
There were reports of civilians being gunned down as they attempted to break out and flee the bloodshed, supported with images. 
A video released by local activists and authenticated by AFP on Tuesday showed a fighter known for executing civilians in RSF-controlled areas shooting a group of unarmed civilians sitting on the ground at point-blank range. 

Satellite images taken after the 48-hour massacre in Sudan support reports of thousands of civilians executed – Analysis by the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab, using open source images and satellite imagery, found clusters of objects ‘consistent with the size of human bodies’ and ‘reddish ground discoloration’ thought to be either blood or disturbed soil.

Another video purportedly showed a child soldier murdering a grown man in cold blood, while one other clip showed RSF fighters executing civilians just moments after pretending to release them.
UN chief Antonio Guterres called for an immediate end to military escalation in Sudan on Thursday after reports of the maternity hospital atrocity.
A report published on Monday said the actions of the RSF ‘may be consistent with war crimes and crimes against humanity and may rise to the level of genocide’. 
Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, the head of the RSF has vowed the country would be unified by ‘peace or through war’.
The capture of el-Fasher, the last army holdout in the vast western region of Darfur, comes after more than 18 months of brutal siege, sparking fears of a return to the ethnically targeted atrocities of 20 years ago. 
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’.
Efforts by international groups to mediate an end to the fighting between the paramilitaries and the regular army, raging since April 2023, so far have proved futile.
Dagalo’s paramilitaries now control most of western Sudan, Africa’s third-largest country, while the regular army under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan dominates the north, east and center.
The seizing of el-Fasher has left the RSF in control of a third of Sudan, with fighting now concentrated in the central Kordofan region. While the army regained full control over the capital Khartoum in March, the RSF has set up a parallel administration in the southwestern city of Nyala.
Analysts have warned that Sudan, a country now de facto partitioned, may prove very hard to consolidate as one nation.

Unarmed civilians running away as they are chased by paramilitaries . More than 33,000 people have fled El-Fasher since Sunday westwards to the town of Tawila, which reportedly is already host to more than 650,000 displaced people

While the RSF troops have been accused of continued atrocities against the civilian population and targeted ethnic cleansing, rebel leader Daglo in a speech Wednesday, said he was ‘sorry for the inhabitants of el-Fasher for the disaster that has befallen them’ adding, that civilians were off limits.
The RSF, an offshoot of Janjaweed militias that attacked non-Arab communities in Darfur two decades ago, again has been accused of carrying out ethnic genocide against civilians, with graphic videos circulating on social media.
Sudanese Arabs are the dominant ethnic group in the country, but the majority in Darfur are from non-Arab communities such as the Fur people.
An investigation by Amnesty International suggests that RSF rebels have waged a calculated campaign of sexual violence against defenseless civilians in non-Arab communities, using rape, murder and torture to terrorize, demoralize and subjugate the population living in areas they seized.
The army, which has been fighting the RSF for two-and-a-half years, has equally been accused of war crimes.

These satellite images of sand around the Sudanese city of el Fasher is stained red with pools of blood so thick they can be seen from space

On Tuesday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reported five Sudanese volunteers killed and three missing in Bara, a city in Kordofan captured by the RSF last week.
More than 33,000 people have fled El-Fasher since Sunday, headed for Tawila, for the town about 40 miles to the west, and already host to more than 650,000 displaced people.
Many of the newly arriving refugees nursing injuries, were seen carrying their belongings and setting up temporary shelters.
Prior to the outbreak of war, el-Fasher recorded a population of more than one million people. While many are dead, else fled Darfur.
With about 177,000 people remaining, access routes to el-Fasher and satellite-based communications remain shut down, except for use of the RSF rebels who control the Starlink network in the city.

The gunman recorded shooting unarmed civilians in el Fasher, has a reputation of executing civilians in rebel controlled areas 

Sudan’s civil war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and triggered the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis.
Fighting broke out in the capital Khartoum two and half years ago, but rapidly spread. It is estimated that at least 150,000 people have been killed, many of them civilians. More than 14 million people are displaced, forced to flee their homes from violence and famine sweeping parts of the country.