Copyright ynetnews
New and harrowing reports have emerged from the city of El-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region, describing atrocities carried out by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after they seized the city, the last stronghold of the Sudanese army in the region. According to the United Nations, displaced residents and aid workers, RSF fighters killed hundreds of patients and civilians at a hospital, shot at people who tried to flee, and committed widespread sexual violence. The World Health Organization said that around 460 patients and their companions were killed Tuesday at the Saudi Maternity Hospital in El-Fasher by RSF fighters. “I am shocked and deeply disturbed by these reports,” said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Witnesses told The Associated Press that RSF fighters went house to house, beating and shooting civilians, including women and children. Many died in the streets, some while trying to escape. Satellite imagery and videos posted online appeared to confirm scenes of horror: bodies lying in pools of blood inside the hospital, and an armed man—believed to be an RSF fighter—shooting a wounded civilian sitting on the floor. The AP could not independently verify the date or location of the footage. El-Fasher, formerly home to more than a million people, had been under an 18-month siege by the RSF before it fell earlier this week. The city’s capture marks a dramatic turning point in Sudan’s two-and-a-half-year civil war, potentially paving the way for the RSF to consolidate control across Darfur. With about a third of the country now outside the army’s control, fears are growing that Sudan—Africa’s third-largest country—could split once again, nearly 15 years after South Sudan’s secession. According to the Sudan Doctors Network, RSF fighters “cold-bloodedly killed everyone they found inside the Saudi Hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present.” The paramilitary force, led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo—known as Hemedti and sanctioned by the U.S.—grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militia that carried out mass killings in Darfur in the early 2000s. “The Janjaweed showed no mercy for anyone,” said Umm Amena, a mother of four who fled El-Fasher to the nearby town of Tawila after two days of hiding. Amena told AP that she and several dozen civilians—mostly women and children—were detained for a day by RSF fighters in an abandoned house near the hospital. Another survivor, Tajal-Rahman, said the fighters “tortured detainees, shot at least four people, and sexually assaulted women and girls.” “It was like a killing field,” he said. “Bodies everywhere, people bleeding, and no one to help.” Tens of thousands of residents have fled El-Fasher in recent days, with more than 36,000 escaping to surrounding rural areas, according to the U.N. migration agency. In Tawila, which already hosts over 650,000 displaced people, aid workers said new arrivals were traumatized and malnourished. Giulia Chiopris, a pediatrician with Doctors Without Borders, said the hospital there has received many wounded from gunfire and bombings since Oct. 18. “We are seeing a lot of trauma from the last bombings and a huge number of orphans,” she said. “Three siblings arrived Monday night—one only 40 days old, the oldest four years. Their parents were killed in El-Fasher. Strangers brought them here.” The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab reported Tuesday that satellite imagery showed evidence of continued killings in the city since its capture. The images corroborate reports of executions and mass killings near the Saudi Hospital and a detention center at the former Children’s Hospital in eastern El-Fasher, as well as “systematic killings” near the eastern wall built by the RSF earlier this year during the siege. UNICEF Representative to Sudan Sheldon Yett described the situation in El-Fasher as “an absolute catastrophe.” “Thousands of children were already suffering from disease and hunger before the RSF takeover,” he said. “Now it’s hell on Earth with lots of guns.” Aid agencies said the death toll remains unclear due to a near-total communications blackout. The U.N. reported that before the latest violence, about 1,850 civilians were killed in North Darfur between January and late October, including 1,350 in El-Fasher alone. Global outrage has grown following images of the massacre. France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the European Union all condemned the atrocities. U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called for the RSF to be designated a terrorist organization, accusing it of committing genocide against the Sudanese people. Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch, said, “The footage coming out of El-Fasher reveals a horrifying truth: the Rapid Support Forces feel free to carry out mass atrocities with little fear of consequences. The world needs to act to protect civilians from more heinous crimes.” RSF commander Hemedti, in his first comments since the city’s fall, acknowledged what he called “abuses” by his troops but claimed they were not carried out under his orders. He said an internal investigation had been opened. “Our country will rise again, its unity restored, and it will become a state of justice and true democracy,” he said. “We regret the tragedy that befell the people of El-Fasher, but it was not in our hands. The war was forced upon us.”
