Mass atrocities in El Fasher, North Darfur – UN Security Council holds emergency session

Reports of mass atrocities in and around the North Darfur capital El Fasher following the city’s capture by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have prompted a chorus of international condemnation, and renewed calls for an immediate ceasefire and demands for unrestricted access to the region by humanitarian relief organisations. The atrocities have been acknowledged by RSF commander Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ‘Hemedti’, while satellite imagery confirms mass graves and at least 1,500 civilian deaths amid terror against non-Arab ethnic groups.

The United Nations Security Council is currently meeting in an emergency session to address the rapidly deteriorating situation, “that marks a new low in Sudan’s brutal civil war… hospitals, schools and IDP camps are under attack, with entire neighbourhoods emptied as families flee the RSF militia”.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has strongly condemned reports of violations of international humanitarian law and abuses of human rights in El Fasher, appealed for “an immediate end to the siege, and safe, rapid, and unimpeded humanitarian aid delivery and access to all civilians in need”.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says it’s appalled and deeply shocked by reports that 460 patients and their companions have been killed at Saudi Maternity Hospital in the city, while in reports reaching Radio Dabanga from Darfur, the Sudan Doctors Network say: “They [RSF] cold-bloodedly killed everyone they found inside the hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present in the wards. Hospitals in El Fasher have been transformed into human slaughterhouses at the hands of the RSF, who make no distinction between combatant and patient, or between child and doctor.”

‘Shameful international silence’

In harrowing reports, the Sudan Doctors Network describe the Saudi Maternity Hospital massacre “a heinous crime that violates all humanitarian laws and divine principles”, asserting that “what happened is not an isolated incident, but rather another episode in the systematic genocide being perpetrated by the RSF against civilians in Darfur, amid a suspicious and shameful international silence.”

The Sudan Doctors Network, hold the RSF and its leaders fully responsible for this atrocious crime. We consider what has happened to be a war crime and a crime against humanity that warrants prosecution and punishment before international courts.

“We call upon the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the Security Council, and all human rights organizations worldwide to break their silence and take immediate action to protect the remaining medical personnel, patients, and unarmed civilians in El Fasher and throughout Darfur.”

Dr Tasneem Al-Amin, Spokesperson for the Sudanese Doctors Network underscores that “the massacres the world is witnessing today are an extension of what occurred in El Fasher more than a year and a half ago, when over 14,000 civilians were killed through bombing, starvation, and extrajudicial executions.

“This took place under a complete siege marked by systematic starvation and the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure, markets, and displacement camps. In just three days, however, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) killed approximately 1,500 civilians in El Fasher — all of them murdered while fleeing the city in an attempt to escape the escalating clashes,” Dr Al-Amin says.

“What is happening in El Fasher constitutes a true genocide based on ethnicity, met with international and regional indifference and a lack of response commensurate with the magnitude of the massacres being perpetrated against civilians. These atrocities are being broadcast openly by the perpetrators in an act of defiance, as part of a deliberate and systematic campaign of killing and extermination.”