Hundreds killed in Sudan hospital massacre as UN warns of ‘worst place on Earth’

Hundreds of civilians were reportedly massacred inside the main hospital of el-Fasher, just days after the Rapid Support Forces militia seized control of the Sudanese city, the United Nations says.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, said the agency was “appalled and deeply shocked” by reports that around 460 people were killed at the Saudi Hospital, describing it as one of the most horrific attacks of the war.

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Local medical groups and activists say RSF fighters stormed the hospital on Tuesday and killed everyone they found inside — including patients, their relatives, and medical staff. “They cold bloodedly killed everyone they found inside the Saudi Hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present,” the Sudan Doctors’ Network said.

The group said medical facilities in el-Fasher had been “transformed into human slaughterhouses”. It also accused the militia of kidnapping six health workers — four doctors, a pharmacist and a nurse — and demanding ransoms of more than $150,000 for their release.

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The el-Fasher Resistance Committee, a local activist group, described a “horrifying silence” in the city after the attack.

El-Fasher, once the army’s last stronghold in the Darfur region, fell to the RSF on Sunday after an 18-month siege marked by starvation, air strikes and heavy shelling. With its fall, fears have grown for the 250,000 civilians trapped in the city, many from non-Arab communities that have long been targeted by RSF and allied Arab militias — allegations the group denies.

Since Sudan’s civil war began in April 2023, Darfur has seen some of the worst atrocities. Witnesses say entire villages have been wiped out and non-Arab ethnic groups deliberately attacked. The UN and aid agencies say the situation in the region is now catastrophic.

“We have had massacres on top of months of deprivation, starvation and no medical care,” said Jan Egeland, a former top UN humanitarian official. “I think this is the worst place on Earth now; it’s the biggest humanitarian emergency on Earth, and it happens in the dark — there has been far too little attention to what’s happening in Sudan.”

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A communications blackout has made it nearly impossible to confirm the full scale of the killings, but people who escaped the city describe harrowing scenes.

One survivor told BBC Arabic that the RSF filmed and beat people as they fled. “The shelling was so intense on Saturday that we had no choice but to flee el-Fasher,” he said. “Along the way, the RSF filmed us and we were beaten and insulted — and they stole what we had. Some were captured and ransoms were demanded. Some of those taken were later executed.”

Before the latest assault, the WHO had already verified 185 attacks on health facilities since the start of the war, killing more than 1,200 people.

“All attacks on health care must stop immediately and unconditionally,”  Tedros said. “All patients, health personnel and health facilities must be protected under international humanitarian law. Ceasefire!”