What changed
A detailed investigation found at least 43 attacks on hospitals and healthcare sites in el-Fasher between May 2024 and October 2025, during the Rapid Support Forces’ siege and takeover of the Darfur city. It also recorded 55 medical workers killed, 120 injured and 10 forcibly disappeared or abducted between April 2023 and October 2025. The RSF rejected the findings as propaganda.
Why it matters
The damage was not only to buildings. It stripped el-Fasher of the places where civilians could seek care as the war closed in. South Hospital, one of the city’s main remaining facilities, was shelled repeatedly in late May and early June 2024 while power failed and supplies dwindled.
That makes the alleged campaign significant beyond the individual attacks. When hospitals are forced out of service, medical workers are killed or taken away, and patients lose the last functioning route to treatment. A surgeon who worked in the city said the goal was to evacuate hospitals and put them out of service because healthcare was “the cornerstone” of the city.
The United Nations described the alleged attacks as serious violations of international humanitarian law that may amount to war crimes. The World Health Organization called el-Fasher one of the clearest and most severe examples of Sudan’s wider assault on healthcare. Those are grave assessments, although no final legal determination is stated.
The broader picture is also not one-sided: both Sudan’s military and the RSF have been accused of attacking health facilities. In March 2026, a bombing at al-Daein hospital in RSF-held eastern Darfur killed dozens and forced the hospital to close; observers believed the military carried out the strikes, while the military denied responsibility.
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