Sudan war: 234 medical workers killed, ‘SGBV on the rise’

The Sudan Doctors Network said on Thursday that the number of medical workers killed since the start of the war has risen to at least 234, with more than 507 wounded, 59 missing and 73 detained, many of them held in “very bad conditions” in Nyala, South Darfur.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga, the network’s spokesperson, Mohammed Faisal, said Khartoum recorded the highest number of deaths among medical staff, followed by El Gezira State, North Darfur, the other Darfur states and South Kordofan.

He said the figures continue to rise due to the repeated targeting of health facilities by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

“Since the beginning of the war, medical cadres have become legitimate military targets,” Faisal said. “We documented the targeting of hospitals and clinics, and doctors killed while providing medical services.”

He added that doctors in North Darfur, particularly in the capital of El Fasher, were subjected to killing, kidnapping and enforced disappearance after the RSF stormed the city.

In a statement by the Sudan Doctors Network earlier this week, they said the figures reflect “grave and systematic violations” against health workers, in clear breach of international laws that guarantee the protection of medical personnel and facilities during armed conflict.

The network called on all parties to immediately halt violations, protect health workers, release detainees and disclose the fate of the missing. It also urged the international community and humanitarian organisations to pressure for safe access so medical staff can carry out their work.

‘Rape, sexual slavery, and forced displacement’

A researcher at the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) has revealed new evidence of widespread sexual violence in Darfur, including the kidnapping of seven female university students, pregnancies resulting from rape, and suicides linked to trauma.

Speaking at the launch of a joint fact-finding report by ACJPS and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in Uganda’s capital of Kampala, senior lawyer and researcher Mohamed Badawi said the violations form part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence during the war.

Badawi said armed men kidnapped seven female students from university accommodation in El Geneina in May 2025. The attackers detained them for 15 days in the El Nahda neighbourhood, which is located west of Nyala in South Darfur, where they were subjected to sexual slavery and forced labour. According to the researcher, the perpetrators were former prison inmates who later joined armed groups.

He said the mission documented ten pregnancies resulting from rape in South Darfur, as well as two suicides in Kutum, about 120 kilometres north-west of the North Darfur capital, warning that the real figures are likely far higher due to underreporting.

Badawi said sexual violence has been a major driver of mass displacement from El Geneina, with survivors describing a brutal “trade-off”, where victims were forced to choose between the rape of women or the killing of male relatives.

He added that women faced repeated abuse while fleeing towards Adré in eastern Chad, where checkpoints and armed groups exposed them to further assaults. In refugee areas, weak protection and lack of aid fuelled sexual exploitation, including forced prostitution of women and girls, some of them minors.

Badawi said many survivors could not identify perpetrators because they wore masks, complicating justice efforts and deepening psychological harm.

The joint FIDH–ACJPS fact-finding mission report says the crimes, largely attributed to the RSF and allied militias, may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and calls for accountability through national and international justice mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court.