Sudan: 460 dead in hospital shooting condemned by WHO

A reported 460 patients have been shot dead in a mass shooting in Sudan’s last functioning hospital in the city of El-Fasher, The New Arab via agencies reported on 30th October.

Sudan’s civil war which outbroke in 2023 has been commonly cited as one of the worst humanitarian emergency’s of recent years, with an estimated 40,000 dead from the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The RSF has frequently hit civilians with drone strikes across the country, targetting sites such as maternity wards and mosques. Earlier this week, the RSF successfully captured El-Fasher.

The hospital shooting, deemed “horrific” by WHO, is the next incident to occur in Sudan, with the last functioning hospital in El-Fasher, the Saudi Maternity Hospital being a frequently attacked building. Last week the hospital was reportedly attacked for the fourth time this month in an assault that killed a nurse and wounded three other health workers. Following this six healthcare workers, four doctors, a nurse and a pharmacist were claimed to be abducted on 28th October, the same day as this mass shooting which saw 460 patients shot and killed in the hospital.

“This latest tragedy is taking place in the rapidly worsening crisis in North Darfur’s El-Fasher, where escalating violence, siege conditions and rising hunger and disease are killing civilians, including children, and collapsing and already-fragile health system,” WHO said. They went onto say “WHO condemns these horrific attacks on health care in the strongest terms and calls for the respect of the sanctity of health care.”

The RSF’s continuing activities across the Darfur region has reportedly sparked fears of ethnically motivated violence in Sudan. In what has been described by some as a “true genocide”, the RSF’s leader, Mohamed Dagalo (commonly referred to as Hemedti) was sanctioned by the former US Secretary of State for accusations of attacking civilians, conducting systemic ethnic violence and picking out women and girls from certain ethnic groups to be raped.

Ultimately, this latest mass shooting at the Saudi Maternity Hospital that has killed at least 460 people contributes to the public perception that there are worsening conditions in the Darfur region. As famine and sickness devastate, conflict and violence only escalate. Concerns about the RSF’s actions constituting a genocide and committing ethnic cleansing only materialise to a greater degree each day.

The New Arab via agencies, Maghrebi.org, Al-Jazeera