Last Working Hospital in Sudan’s El Fasher Reportedly Attacked and Raided
A violent raid by anti-government forces over the weekend rendered one of the last hospitals in the Sudanese city of el-Fasher unusable, forcing medical staff and patients to once again flee to safer areas, Doctors Without Borders reported on Monday.
The civil war between the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has raged through Sudan for nearly 14 months, killing close to 15 thousand people and displacing another 9 million, either internally or into neighboring countries.
El-Fasher, the provincial capital of Sudan’s North Darfur region, remains the last major city still controlled by the government; however, reports from medical staff in El-Fasher told international media that the rebel forces have been shelling the city for days and have specifically targeted the South Hospital where they are stationed.
On Saturday, RSF fighters reportedly attacked the facilities, flooding into the hospital to steal equipment and medical supplies while threatening staff. As a result of the ongoing violence, only ten patients and a much smaller team of staff were present for the attack.
“Due to the chaos, our team was unable to verify if there were any dead or wounded,” said Maximilien Kowalski, Doctors Without Borders interim head of mission in Sudan.
The RSF and its allies have also been accused of committing ethnic cleansing against Darfur’s non-Arab groups, engaging in widespread sexual violence, and mass killings.
