Mirian Gom 
KHARTOUM, Sudan – The World Health Organisation (WHO), on Friday confirmed that armed groups carried out multiple waves of attacks on a hospital in Sudan’s Darfur region, killing hundreds of patients, medical workers and civilians sheltering inside the facility.
The assault on the Saudi Hospital in El-Fasher occurred on Tuesday, amid the ongoing battle for control of the city, following an 18-month siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — a powerful paramilitary group engaged in a brutal two-year war with Sudan’s military.
According to WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier, the gunmen returned to the hospital at least three times, abducting doctors and nurses before opening fire on staff and civilians.
“At least six medical personnel are still being held,” Lindmeier told a U.N. press briefing in Geneva.
He said the attackers later “started killing,” and on their final return “finished off what was still standing, including other people sheltering in the hospital.”
The Saudi Hospital had been the last functioning medical facility in the city, offering only limited care before the attack.
Since El-Fasher fell on Sunday, there is now no humanitarian health presence in the city, said Dr. Teresa Zakaria, WHO’s head of humanitarian operations.
Humanitarian agencies warn the impact stretches beyond the hospital. The city’s fall marks a dangerous new phase in a conflict that has already claimed over 40,000 lives, displaced 14 million people, triggered famine in parts of Darfur, and fuelled deadly disease outbreaks.
Despite efforts to evacuate civilians, only about 5,000 of the more than 62,000 people who fled El-Fasher in recent days have reached the Tawila displacement camp, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council, raising fears for the tens of thousands unaccounted for.
The full death toll from the hospital massacre — and the wider violence — remains unknown.
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Oluwafunbi Bello