A civil war has been raging in Sudan since April 2023, between the Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), after a power struggle within the military regime broke out into open conflict in the capital Khartoum, then quickly spread across the country.
It was feared that the RSF paramilitaries who were besieging El Fasher in Sudan, would massacre civilians if they were able to take the city. Sadly, that appears to have come to pass.
Massacre in a hospital
It was reported on 29 October that according to the Sudan Doctors Network and the World Health Organization, hundreds of patients and staff inside a hospital in El Fasher had been killed by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces. It was said to have happened after the RSF paramilitaries claimed control of the city on 26 October.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-general of the World Health Organisation said in a post on ‘X’ that he was “appalled and deeply shocked” by reports that more than 460 people had been killed at the Saudi maternity hospital. He didn’t apportion blame for the massacre.
In a Facebook post on 29th October, the Sudan Doctors Network, who are a medical group monitoring the civil war, said: “The Rapid Support Forces yesterday … killed in cold blood everyone they found inside the Saudi hospital.”
World leaders condemn the massacre
It was then reported on 31 October that senior UN figures and other diplomats, speaking at the UN Security Council had the condemned mass killings by the Rapid Support Forces in El Fasher after the Sudanese city was described as having, “descended into an even darker hell,” since the RSF took over on 26 October.
The UK, as the UN penholder on Sudan was said to have been prompted to call an emergency session of the security council in New York on Thursday, following widespread reports of ethnically targeted killings in recent days.
The Assistant Secretary-general of the UN for Africa, Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, told the meeting “The situation is simply horrifying. In the past week, the UN human rights office has documented widespread and serious human rights violations in and around El Fasher. These include credible reports of mass killings in various locations and summary executions during house-to-house searches and as civilians have tried to flee the city.
“Communications have been cut off. The situation is chaotic. In this context, it is difficult to estimate the number of civilians killed. Despite commitments to protect civilians, the reality is that no one is safe in El Fasher. There is no safe passage for civilians to leave the city.”
Pobee added: “External support is enabling the conflict. Weapons and fighters continue to flow into Sudan, further contributing to the already desperate situation.”
Survivors tell harrowing stories
Survivors with distressing stories were given a chance to tell the world of their harrowing experiences on 30 October. These survivors included a mother of five children called Hayat, who told the AFP news agency via satellite phone that seven RSF fighters had killed her 16-year-old son in front of her. They ransacked her home and searched her undergarments.
Hayat went on to say that, “we saw many dead bodies lying on the ground and wounded people left behind in the open because their families couldn’t carry them.”
Hussein, another survivor who was wounded by shelling, had somehow made it to Tawila with the help of a who family carried their mother on a donkey cart said: “The situation in El-Fasher is so terrible – dead bodies in the streets, and no one to bury them. We’re grateful we made it here, even if we only have the clothes we were wearing.”
A third displaced person from El-Fasher spoke to The Associated Press news agency: “Shelling and drones (attacks) were happening all the time. They hit us with the back of the rifles day and night unless we hid in the houses. At 3 in the morning we sneaked outside the houses till we arrived Hillat Alsheth (area in north Darfur) where we were looted. They left us with nothing, I came here barefoot, even my shoes were taken.”
Meanwhile Al-Jazeera reported more about civilians who had managed to escape the atrocity, and reported what they had to say.
Urgent Question in the House of Commons
Anneliese Dodds, the MP for Oxford East, was reported on 31 October to have a tabled an urgent question the previous day in the House of Commons, saying that the reported massacre at a maternity hospital which is believed to have killed “more than 460 people must be a turning point” in the civil war in Sudan.
Ms Dodds went on to warn of a “slow-motion Srebrenica” unfolding in Africa, in reference to the genocidal killing of over 8,000 Bosniak Muslims by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995. Dodds added: “The scale of suffering in Sudan’s war on civilians is almost impossible to comprehend.” On 1 November it was announced that Yvette Cooper had said that the UK would send £5 million of aid to Sudan after scenes of “horrifying” atrocities following the fall of El Fasher.
Stop the supply of arms
This is another piece of truly heartbreaking news from Sudan, to go along with so many others in recent months. Again, we see innocent people being massacred. And again, we see condemnation from the international community. It is good to see that more aid is being sent from the UK, and that there was an urgent question about the hospital massacre in the House of Commons. But a lot more aid and more urgent questions are now needed, or what is already a truly horrific situation will escalate even further.
What is most important is that the supply of arms to the RSF, much of it said to be coming from the United Arab Emirates, be halted immediately. It is also important that major powers take responsibility, along with African countries, to set up a meaningful peace conference leading to an equally meaningful peace process. Without these steps the future for many in Sudan looks extremely bleak. Meanwhile we must do what we can to get help to the long-suffering people in Sudan.
How you can help
Please see here for guidance to contact the Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and make the following points:
“Thank you for highlighting the plight of people across Sudan during your first week as Foreign Secretary.
“Please pick up the phone to your UAE counterpart, demand safe, voluntary passage for civilians as well as humanitarian access, and make it clear that the UK will be watching closely what the RSF is doing in El Fasher (with the support of the UAE).”
To find other ways you can help the people of Sudan please see:
Red Cross Sudan appeal here.
United Nations Refugee Agency for Sudan appeal here.
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